Miranda Pederson/Daily News Greenwood’s Courtney Smith prepares for a hit Tuesday against Bowling Green during the District 12 Volleyball Tournament championship match at Warren Central High School.

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For the eighth consecutive year, Greenwood is the district volleyball champion.

The Lady Gators never gave rival Bowling Green a chance Tuesday night, winning 2-0 (25-8, 25-16) in the District 12 Tournament championship match at Warren Central High School.

Greenwood (33-9) jumped to 5-0 leads in both games and never allowed BG (20-16) to get closer than two points.

“It’s great to keep doing this over and over,” GHS setter Shelby Worthington said. “That’s our goal to win district every year. We wanted to come out and play our best no matter what - no matter who we’re playing.”

Worthington had 16 assists in the win and outside hitter Courtney Smith (17 kills) was named tournament MVP. The Gators ended the first set on a 4-0 run and the second on five straight points.

“It’s district tournament so you never know what’s going to happen,” Greenwood associate head coach Allen Whittinghill said. “I expected us to play hard enough to win. We don’t go into it lightly against anybody.”

Bowling Green couldn’t get anything going in the first set and by the time it got some momentum in the second, it was too little, too late. The Purples pulled within three on three separate occasions in game two before falling back into an insurmountable hole.

“It was a goal of ours to get to No. 2 and the go on to region this year,” BG coach Allyson Barnett said. “I have a lot of faith in them. We’re gonna work hard in practice the next couple of days and see what we got for next week.”

Trailing 12-4 in the second game, BG started its final run when Alex Oldham finished a set from Emily Purpus to the back right corner of the floor. A Smith kill attempt then went long and Holly Jensen blocked Megan Locke at center net to make it 12-7. Jensen pulled BG within four when she slammed home a kill from the middle position off a Purpus set, but Smith restored order with a kill off a Worthington back set from the left side to the right sideline.

After an attacking error by BG, a Purpus tip made it 14-9 and an error by GHS brought it to 14-10. Another Greenwood shot out of bounds made it 14-11 before Samantha Mosher and Locke symbolically blocked a Jensen tip attempt at center court. Mosher then put away a kill from a Worthington set to make it 16-11.

The Purples scored the next two on a violation and an attacking error for a 16-13 score and back-to-back services errors made it 17-14, but GHS reeled off four straight points - including two more Smith kills - and it was suddenly a 21-14 game.

In the first set, it was all Greenwood. Smith made it 3-0 on her first kill of the night thanks to a Lauren Pierson set and after a failed service return made it 5-0, BG was quick to call timeout.

The Purples received a point on a GHS violation and made it 5-2 after digging three straight Smith kill attempts. Oldham put the rally away with her first kill of the night and BG seemed to have woken up.

Greenwood would have none of it.

Three BG attacking errors later and a GHS fault made it 8-3 before Smith slammed home a kill and Worthington had an ace to make it 10-3. Smith made it 11-4 on a kill from right to left off a Worthington set then made it 12-4 on an ace of her own. Molly Tarter made it 15-5 on a tip and Worthington’s own tip after a rally-saving dig by Pierson made it 19-7.

Smith pushed it to 22-8 on a kill from Worthington straight down the left line. Locke added a kill from the middle thanks to Worthington for a 23-8 lead and Smith closed the set with a soft kill while drifting out of bounds and a slam from left to right.

The Gators jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set behind three Smith kills. The lead dwindled to 5-3 when Smith had a shot go long, but the sophomore came right back with two straight kills to make it 7-3.

Greenwood tallied 19 points over the two sets thanks to BGHS errors.

“It’s a mental thing,” Barnett said. “It’s ‘Greenwood’ - when they see that, hear that - their attitudes just change. To me, that’s just what it was.”

Many of the errors came as a direct result of Greenwood’s serves, which appeared to give the Purples trouble all night.

“One of our goals this year was to be more aggressive servers than the team we’re playing,” Whittinghill said. “We’ve just been working on serving spots and locations and making people pass. It’s one of our season goals and it’s been paying off.”

Both teams return to action next week at the Region 4 Tournament, which will be hosted by Logan County High School.