Seven long years NorthWood waited for this, and head coach Bough forced herself to believe it really had happened.

"Finally," she said, "Finally."

The streak is over.

Not Cal Ripken's consecutive games played streak. He's still clipping along at 2,478 and counting entering next year.

No, but one of the most impressive streaks strung together by a local team fell last night. Warsaw's volleyball team lost to NorthWood 15-9, 13-15, 15-2, ending the Tigers' seven-year reign of either winning or sharing the Northern Lakes Conference title.

NorthWood improved to 20-2 overall and 5-0 in the NLC, while Warsaw dropped to 12-13 and 3-2. NorthWood has one conference match left, at Wawasee (16-13, 2-3 NLC) on Thursday. Every other NLC team has at least one loss.

"It is hard for my girls," Warsaw coach Jamie Byron said. "They're used to the tradition, I guess. But realistically, we knew from the beginning of the season on it was a possibility. We weren't going to kid ourselves that it would be easy like the other seven had been.

"We knew NorthWood and Plymouth had been waiting for us for a number of years. They were lurking in the background, waiting for the right time to pounce. This was it."

Before the season, Bough figured this would be it, too.

NorthWood went 27-7 overall and 4-2 in the NLC last year, and Bough returned eight key players from that squad.

No players have been more key than the hitters. When coaches talk NorthWood, they talk about how tough they are at the net with senior middle hitter Colleen Miller, senior outside hitter Jamie Gill, senior outside hitter Angela Hattery, junior middle hitter Natalie Will and junior outside hitter Amy Zercher.

"We want to intimidate people at the net," Bough said before the season. "I think this team can do that."

Can and has done. NorthWood has played three games in only four matches this year.

The Panthers looked to cruise in two sets over the Tigers. They won a 15-9 ho-hummer over the Tigers in the first game then jumped ahead 13-7 in the second game. The big hitters played as advertised, rifling shot after unreturnable shot at the Tigers.

But the Tigers still clutched the NLC title and refused to let it go. Using a lot of tips to catch NorthWood's front line off balance, the Tigers not only jumped back in the game, they won it. They made Gill, arguably NorthWood's best hitter, a non-factor. They got the Panthers into long volleys, and they won those.

Warsaw outscored NorthWood's veteran squad 8-0 to win the second game 15-13.

"That said something about our team that I wasn't sure was there before tonight's match," Byron said. "After the first game, I thought we might just pack it in and head back to Warsaw. I gotta give them credit. We started getting more touches on the blocks, we started turning our hands in on the block in order to force it back into the court.

"We frustrated them. We knew if we could frustrate Gill on the outside, maybe she would start tipping and we could pick up some easy balls. She did get frustrated the second game."

Suddenly, the NorthWood team with its big, mean, intimidating hitters up front looked vulnerable. The Panthers helped Warsaw's rally by hitting shots backwards and into the net. Their players wore the wide-eyed 'What the heck just hit us' look as they walked off the court.

"The second game, Warsaw tried every trick in the book," Bough said. "And it worked. They were tipping, serving short. Warsaw got really hot that second game. They blocked the ball well, which gave us every opportunity toward the end. We didn't put the ball away."

While Warsaw carried momentum into the intermission, NorthWood had a wakeup call. The Panther hitters more than lived up to their billing, hammering shots at Warsaw players who served as targets. After digging up nearly everything hit at them the second game, the Tigers struggled to return anything the last game and lost 15-2.

Byron said the intermission between the second and third games sapped the momentum and emotion away from her team.

"The intensity was incredible," she said. "We tried to focus on that for the third game, but it just wasn't there. I took them to the side and tried to keep them fired up. I told them they would come right at us. We frustrated Gill the second game, then it turned to anger the third game. We couldn't stop it. This is something NorthWood's waited for for a number of years.

"They came out and got the job done. We didn't."

Bough knew her hitters up front were the key, but she said they couldn't have played as well as they did without some help.

"Sometimes we always look at the hitters," Bough said. "We talk about them all the time, but I have to give our setters credit tonight. I think Marla Yoder played a heckuva game as far as digging balls up, an outstretched arm, popping balls up that I thought were going to be down. She was all over."

NorthWood, Bough knows, controls its destiny. If the Panthers beat Wawasee, they will win the title outright and share it with no one. Plymouth has only one loss, and that was to NorthWood.

"We came this far," Bough said. "We didn't want to let it slip away. We've waited a long time. It's been seven years since we beat Warsaw. We always played Warsaw tough, but never tough enough to beat them. Our girls came ready to play.

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy, we knew there would be a turnaround, we knew we would make some mistakes. How would we respond to that? We responded the last game."

Warsaw figures to finish third in the NLC, unless Plymouth loses another match.

"We were just going to have to play one of our best matches of the season," Byron said. "I give NorthWood all the credit. They wanted it just a little more than we did. They never gave up, never gave up."

NORTHWOOD DEF.

WARSAW 15-9, 13-15, 15-2

NorthWood statistics:

Serving: Jamie Gill 16 for 16, one ace; Colleen Miller 17 for 18

Assists: Marla Yoder 26, Angela Hattery 13

Kills: Gill 12, Amy Zercher 11, Hattery 9, Natalie Will 9

Blocks: Will 6, Gill 3

Digs: Yoder 20, Zercher 11, Hattery 11

Warsaw statistics:

Kills: Alyssa Raphael 6, Brooke Sutton 6, Nancy Mason 4

Digs: Mason 12, Raphael 12

Assists: Jessica Zaugg 15, Mason 8, Raphael 7, Shanna Smith 5

Aces: Mason 3 [[In-content Ad]]