WABASH - For new Warsaw volleyball coach Jamie Byron, the first career win will always be important to her. But it might be win No. 2 that will stick in her mind the most.

After the Tigers disposed of Churubusco 15-12, 15-2 Tuesday, they had a little tougher time with Northfield in their second match of the night, before outlasting the Norse, 15-10, 15-12.

In game one, Byron saw her Tigers fall behind 7-0 before coming back to outscore Northfield 15-3 and win the first game.

"That will stand out in my mind the most," Byron said. "In my first day coaching, the fact that we were down, and the fact that we came back and nobody gave up.

"There were a couple of moments when we could have folded and given up and wanted to start over the next game," she said. "I saw a lot of heart. They were determined they weren't going to let any more balls hit the floor."

Taking over for the successful Penny Salm as the Tigers' coach obviously carries a lot of pressure with it to keep the tradition alive, but ironically, when Warsaw was at its best against Northfield, Byron could only sit and watch as the Tigers chose not to give in to the talented Norse.

"They know I have confidence in them, and they have confidence in each other," Byron said. "That will carry us a very long way, especially in some of these tough matches we have this weekend at (the) Mishawaka (Invitational). I really like the way we are playing as a team.

"For the first match I was very, very pleased," she said. "Especially because we didn't give up on things. Early in the season, that is definitely an important point. If we had given up, I would have been a little more worried."

The Tigers, who earlier in the day had been ranked No. 18 in the preseason poll, were playing a little shorthanded with some important players on the bench. Two of the players, last year's starting middle blocker Katie Clemens and Tippecanoe Valley transfer Sam Wideman, were not in uniform because of eligibility problems, while Jahna Swanson and Sheila Whitaker are battling nagging injuries. Whitaker played briefly.

"I don't think we showed that (No. 18) tonight," Byron said. "Without Katie and Jahna, it hurt us tonight. And Sheila, who is almost ready to come back. Once we get those people back, we will be even tougher, and then we will start living up to that ranking a little more.

"I didn't even tell them they were No. 18 before the match," she said. "I told them on the bus, and told them we have a lot of work to keep that ranking and improve. Obviously, we want to win. But we also want to keep winning, we also want to improve. If we have to take some losses along the way, we will, as long as they are learning experiences."

And where do those improvements need to come right now?

"Right now, we need to work on our sets and keeping them on the net, and we need to work on our serving," Byron said. "We have been working on that all week, but we still have a lot of work to do.

"Our passing really came around today," she said. "I was a little worried about that coming in. But I thought we did all right with that."

Sarah Calhoun led the Tigers unofficially with 13 kills against Northfield, while Lisa Estep added seven and Ann Fribley and Alyssa Raphael added four.

Against Churubusco, Calhoun had nine kills, Fribley seven and Estep five.

Warsaw (2-0) is at the Mishawaka Invitational on Saturday. [[In-content Ad]]