SYRACUSE - Tippecanoe Valley volleyball coach Jon Parker has been saying all preseason that his team may be better than last year's record-setting one. Last year's team won 16 games, six more than any other in Valley history. Despite the graduation of three players from last season's team, Parker is confident that the volleyball program will continue to make strides.

Parker unleashed his team on Wawasee Tuesday, and the team responded with a 15-2, 15-8 thrashing. That win came despite starting setter Rhonda Doud's absence because of the Indiana State Fair.

"I was really happy with the way we played tonight for the first match," Parker said.

That's not to say Parker didn't have his question marks, because he did. After losing those three seniors, he wondered who would step up into a leadership role. He found out that there's no problem there.

"Brooke Fisher (six kills) just had an outstanding game this evening," Parker said. "Amy Nellans (13-of-13 serving, five aces), the other senior coming in for us this year, just served outstanding and played well up front."

Carissa Parker had 13 assists for the Vikings and was 6-of-6 serving.

"I thought she did an excellent job for us leading and communicating on the floor," Parker said.

Tiffany Cunningham was 8-of-8 serving with two aces, and Jennifer Studebaker had three kills and two blocks.

Across the net, Wawasee struggled in match No. 1 of the season.

"I wanted us to be aggressive on the court and communicate a lot," Wawasee coach Jason Fleming said. "We've got a lot of young kids on the floor at the same time. When you have that combination with the first match and a lot of young kids, you're going to have a lot of jitters."

That nervous tension caused Wawasee to struggle with the passing game and not communicate as much as Fleming would have liked. Fleming chalked up the passing problems simply to it being the first match and feels that it will be vastly improved by the next match.

"Other than that, we got a lot stronger attacks than I expected," Fleming said. "Valley has some good hitters, and we took a lot of abuse over the weak-side block. We've got a few adjustments to make, and we'll work on those over the next few matches and be ready to go."

Sara Frantz led Wawasee in assists, with seven, and digs, with four. Angie Beer had a pair of kills and Danielle Powell had three digs.

Valley (1-0) will try to keep the momentum going at Central Noble Thursday. Parker enjoys this non-conference schedule and wants to see how his team performs in matches like these.

"We're really toughening our schedule up, and I think we have to do it if we're going to get the program up to where we want it," Parker said. "One of our goals is to win conference and another is to win sectional, and you've got to play tough teams to do it."

Wawasee (0-1) will be at Fairfield Thursday.

In junior varsity action, Valley beat Wawasee 15-13, 15-10. Wawasee was led in kills by Shanna Zolman with seven, while Candice Brown had four assists and Shalesta Newcomer had five digs. [[In-content Ad]]