CHURUBUSCO - Any reports of the demise of the Warsaw volleyball team were certainly premature.

After returning only one starter from last year's semistate team, the Tigers came into this season with little idea of how they might fare in the upcoming campaign.

But the program is alive and kicking, thank you.

The new-look Tigers opened the 1997 campaign looking like the Warsaw teams of old with two convincing wins over Northfield (15-7, 15-7) and Churubusco (15-4, 15-12) Tuesday in the traditional three-way opener.

Northfield beat Churbuscuo 15-8, 15-8 in the first match.

Unleashing a deep, talented squad, second-year Warsaw coach Jamie Byron wasn't surprised by the early success of a relatively inexperienced team.

"In the stats, it looks like we lost everything," Byron said. "But we had all these girls playing JV or varsity last year, and they were playing the whole season. They didn't have to sit the bench. That experience has really paid off.

"I knew we had it in us," she said. "It was just a matter of a couple of players really stepping up their games, and they have. They have shown they are really ready for this level."

By the indications of the first two matches of the season, Warsaw might even have an advantage over last season's successful squad. While last year's team was led by the talented trio of Sarah Calhoun, Lisa Estep and Melissa Bolles, the Tigers of 1997 will not have one or two star players, but a roster that, up and down the lineup, can get the job done at any given time.

"It is a nice relief for me," Byron said. "If I need a passer to send into the game, I can see three of them sitting on the bench with me. It is so nice to rely on that many girls and not just two or three key players."

The depth even gave Byron the luxury of basically playing a two-unit attack with each unit playing one game of each match. The units weren't totally six new players, there were some duplication of players, but the makeup was somewhat different.

"It wasn't intentional, but I told everybody that they were going to play at some point," Byron said. "It just worked out that we played so well in the first game of each set that I just changed almost everybody. I wanted to keep some things the same to not totally upset the apple cart."

Warsaw got an early test in its first match to see how it would react under a pressure situation. The Tigers took a quick 2-0 lead before Northfield ran off seven straight points, and had the Tigers somewhat rattled.

Byron, though, chose not to call a time out and let her young squad sink or swim. Let's just say the Tigers' heads were definitely above water. Warsaw recovered nicely and ran off 13 straight points to win the game.

"I could have called a time out, but that relies on me to break the momentum," Byron said. "I want the girls to be able to do that. Later on down the road if we are in a tight match, and I don't have any more timeouts, they have to be able to dig down within themselves and come up the intensity to stop that drive."

Warsaw went on to finish off the Norse in impressive fashion, 15-7, in the second game.

The Tigers continued that momentum against Churubusco in the first game of the second match when they jumped on the Eagles for a 15-4 win.

After building up a quick 5-0 lead in the second game, Warsaw let down to allow the Eagles to tie the score at five. Things were still all knotted up at 12 when the Tigers got a kill each from Nancy Mason and Sam Wideman sandwiched around a block by Liz Owens to close out the match 15-12.

"We had a full two weeks of practice, and usually we have a match during our first week of school," Byron said. "That extra week really helped. I was pleased with our "quicks" in the middle. I thought we would rely too much on a nice high outside setting game."

Against Northfield, Mason paced the Tigers with eight kills. Shanna Smith and Wideman added four kills each and also got four aces each.

Also, Karla Bailey added six assists, Jessica Zaugg five assists and Brooke Sutton three digs.

Against Churubusco, Wideman stepped up with nine kills, two aces and two digs, while Smith got five kills, two aces and two digs and Alyssa Raphael added four kills and three digs.

Also jumping in were Owens with three kills, Zaugg with nine assists, Bailey with eight assists and Mason had six digs.

The JV team also got off to a 2-0 start this season with wins over Northfield (15-8, 15-10) and Churubusco (15-4, 15-4).

Nerecia Taylor led the Tigers against Northfield with four kills, while Megan Burns had five aces.

Against 'Busco, Laura Overton had four kills and Ryann Jones added seven digs.

Warsaw (2-0) is at Fort Wayne Snider Thursday. [[In-content Ad]]