Give Warsaw volleyball coach Jamie Byron credit: she sticks to her philosophy, no matter what. Not usually one to panic and call quick timeouts when her Tigers seemingly need one, she lets her teams, no matter how young and inexperienced, battle through tough times.

Byron got another chance to test her willpower Thursday during the Tigers' home and Northern Lakes Conference opener against Goshen at the Tiger Den.

Despite winning in two games, 15-12 and 15-9, Warsaw kept up a disturbing trend this season of losing focus in tight matches or making a possible blowout become a tight match.

"A lot of it is just our concentration," Byron said. "We focus well for short periods time, but there is that space in the middle that we tend to let up. We are working on the minor errors in our practices, and I saw a lot of improvement in the minor things that we had against Whitko (Tuesday's match)."

Warsaw led the young Redskins, who have no seniors, 9-6 in game one before a mental lapse allowed Goshen to run off five straight points and lead 11-9. The Tigers rallied to knot the score at 12 before two aces from Karla Bailey sparked a quick 3-0 run to give Warsaw the win.

Things seemed like they would go even easier in the second game when Warsaw jumped out to a 12-2 advantage behind five straight service points from Liz Berry.

Goshen coach Terri Blosser called two quick timeouts, and it seemed to work as the Redskins went on a 7-2 run to cut the margin to 14-9.

The two teams battled through four sideouts when Byron did break down and call a timeout. Warsaw quickly got kills from Alyssa Raphael and Shanna Smith to produce a sideout and a point for the 15-9 win.

"They fight and dig down within themselves, and they get the sideouts that we need," Byron said. "They found a way to win. Some are not the prettiest, but as long as the W (win) is on our side."

After spending basically the first two weeks of the season on the road, the Tigers got the chance against Goshen to strut their stuff in front of the home crowd for the first time this season. It won't be something they can get used to as the schedule puts Warsaw in the Tiger Den for only five events this year.

"It is going to be a rough schedule," Byron said. "We played the first eight matches on the road. Finally we were able to get home in front of our crowd. That is always nice."

Not only was it the home opener for the Tigers, but it was also the Northern Lakes Conference opener for the six-time defending conference champions. Warsaw has won 49 of its last 50 NLC matches after having its 49-match NLC streak snapped last year by Concord.

"Our foremost goal in our minds is to get off to a good start in the conference," Byron said. "NorthWood and Plymouth are out there, and they are looking good. But we can't overlook anybody else.

"We are going to have to continue playing and gutting it out like we are doing, and that is really going to help us when it comes to those other conference matches," she said.

Nancy Mason led the Tigers with 10 kills and four blocks. Raphael added five kills and four blocks. Smith got five kills and two aces.

Also, Karla Bailey had two aces and nine assists, Brooke Sutton got three digs and Jessica Zaugg had nine assists.

Warsaw (4-5, 1-0) hosts an invitational Saturday. [[In-content Ad]]