LIGONIER - Realignment is not for major league baseball only. The NorthWood Panthers know that firsthand.

After winning six consecutive Northridge Sectionals in volleyball, the Panthers were shipped to the West Noble Sectional this year, and although the setting changed, the result remained the same as NorthWood beat West Noble in the morning match on Saturday and then knocked off Wawasee in the finals 15-3, 15-11.

Wawasee played Angola in the first match of the morning. After winning the first set 15-7, the Warriors fell behind 2-0 in set two. However, Wawasee came back quickly to take a 12-5 lead, but Angola would not go away. Junior Mallory Benson served up four aces in five serves as the Hornets buzzed back to within two points at 12-10. Wawasee readjusted and picked up the final three points for a 15-10 win.

Wawasee coach Jason Fleming talked about the emotion his team played with during the opener.

"They're an emotional team so why not express it in the match," Fleming said. "They help keep one another pumped up. They came out ready to play. We'd rather play NorthWood than West Noble on their home court. NorthWood is an emotional team too and they have struggled with that lately."

Fleming got his wish in the second match of the morning session as NorthWood defeated West Noble 15-10, 17-15 in a tight match.

In the first set, the match was tied at 5-5 before NorthWood went on a four-point swing to take control of the match at 9-5. Jamie Gill continued to keep the pressure on West Noble with three consecutive kills as the Panthers won the first set.

The second set was a battle as West Noble went ahead 4-0 and still led 9-5 before NorthWood woke up. Gill and Amy Zercher each had a pair of kills and Marla Yoder handed out five assists as the Panthers scored eight consecutive points for a 13-9 advantage. Leading 14-12, NorthWood had five match point chances, but could not capitalize and the Chargers took a 15-14 lead. Then West Noble had three attempts at match point, but could not convert and Zercher had back-to-back kills on assists from Angela Hattery to win the second set 17-15.

"We won the first game and (West Noble) had to come back and win the second game," NorthWood coach Peg Bough said. "I reminded them that the pressure was on (West Noble), but they were certainly a great team. We didn't expect that much. They were tough. They never let the ball hit the floor, and they had great pursuit. I think that could be the start of a new rivalry for the new sectional.# We've been in a little bit of a slump, and we needed a game like that to help our confidence. We hadn't played that competitive for a while."

The championship match looked like a blowout early. NorthWood won the first set 15-3 as Gill had five kills and Yoder added five assists.

NorthWood led 2-0 in the second set and seemed poised for an easy win when Wawasee got on a roll.

Sara Frantz served 11 consecutive points as Lydia Carpenter began to assert herself and find holes that weren't there in the opening set. She had four kills in the run and seemed to be all over the court as the Warriors opened up an 11-2 lead.

However, once NorthWood wrestled service away from Frantz, the Panthers began to shut down Carpenter again. She had only one kill the rest of the match as NorthWood began to chip away at the lead. Gill had a kill to make it 11-3 and Natalie Will had back-to-back aces to make it 11-5. Colleen Miller had a kill to make the score 11-6 and then had another to make it 11-7. After Carpenter hit the ball into the net to make the score 11-8, Will had a kill on an assist from Hattery to make it 11-9.

Then, Hattery had two straight aces to finally tie the score at 11-11. Will had another kill as NorthWood took a lead that the Panthers would not relinquish at 12-11. After another Hattery ace, Wawasee's Kara Mathew hit a spike long as NorthWood took the title 15-11.

The big question after the match for Bough was what happened during the swoon in which Wawasee scored 11 straight points.

"We talked before the game and all the time about adversity," Bough said. "What do you do and how do you respond to that? I certainly don't like to get down like that, but it's one point at a time. It wasn't anything that Wawasee was doing as much as the mistakes that we were making."

Bough also said that it was part of her team's gameplan to try to keep Carpenter as much of a non-factor as possible.

"We tried to take the ball away from her," Bough said. "That was one of our plans. When there's a team like this with one dominate player in the front row, you keep hitting it at them so they are having to struggle to get her the ball. She's going to get her good hits because she's a good player, but you have to cut down on those."

NorthWood (29-4) will play in the regional on Saturday at Wawasee at 7:30 p.m. against Mishawaka Marian, the winner of the Plymouth Regional. [[In-content Ad]]