Jamie Byron knew that a swoon was possible. She just didn't know when and whether survival was possible.

The first-year Warsaw volleyball coach got her answer Saturday when the Tigers, just coming off a 10-12 run through the last half of the season, whipped a talented Columbia City team in two games to win the school's eighth straight volleyball sectional crown.

Against a number of ranked teams, the Tigers' record may have fallen and the play might have seemed sluggish at times, but all the time Warsaw was learning and getting better. Now, their second wind appears to be upon them.

"We started out the same at the beginning of the season, and we really hit a drop there in the middle stretch, and we are coming back up now," Byron said. "This is a fantastic time for us to start peaking.

"I was wondering how high we would get before it dropped," she said. "We found it. It was in that middle stretch of the season when we were playing tons of ranked teams. It only made us better because we are now going to the regional."

Against the Eagles, Warsaw showed an intensity level that shocked even Byron when the Tigers ripped through for a 15-2, 15-8 win in the championship match. The Tigers overpowered Columbia City and looked more like the team that was ranked in the preseason top 10 than the one that fell out of the top 20 by the end of the season.

"Our intensity level has to stay at the same level that it was for sectional," Byron said. "It was just fantastic."

Warsaw faces Kokomo (18-16) in the second game of the Huntington Regional on Saturday. The Wildcats played the Tigers tough in last year's regional semifinals before Warsaw pulled off a stunning rally to advance to the championship, where they lost to Bellmont.

The Wildkats return a good nucleus of that team, but have been struggling this season and will be without its best player, Denise Swircz.

"They are having kind of an off year," Byron said. "They have a few big girls. They run a 6-2 (offense). It is a little strange. Sometimes the setter will pass in the back row and the other (setter) will set. But it isn't always that way all the time.

"Their block is a little slow from what I have heard," she said. "If we keep playing with our style, and the way we played last week, we have a very good chance to make it to the finals."

Kokomo had to rally just to beat Northwestern in Taylor Sectional finals before winning 8-15, 15-13, 15-12. The Wildcats are a relatively young team with six juniors and two sophomores on their roster.

If the Tigers make it to the championship match, a fourth regional title in five years is within their grasp as either Southwood or South Adams would be their opponents. Neither team is ranked, but both are dangerous. Southwood upset Northfield in its own sectional, while South Adams knocked off Bellmont before beating Bluffton for the Bellmont Sectional crown.

South Adams is led by 6-foot-4 middle blocker Susie Meshberger, who has over 220 kills this year. Stefanie Dubach has 130 kills. Along with Meshberger, South Adams can go big with 6-1 Jaclyn McCabe and 5-11 Jenny Mertz.

Regardless of whom the Tigers play, Byron wants to see Warsaw stay sky high for the matches.

"Our communication has to stay at a high level," she said. "We were talking it up, and there was no doubt who was going to play the next ball because someone was always yelling.

"We have to keep our attitudes up," she said. "We have to know that we are going to come in and have a great practice and know we are going to have a great match. We have to keep that same tough mental attitude." [[In-content Ad]]