SYRACUSE - When Wawasee fell behind Triton 12-4 in the first game Monday, the Warrior spikers had two choices - pack it in or turn it up. Wawasee chose the latter of the two.

And although the Trojans eventually won game one, 15-13, the emotion and enthusiasm that the Warriors created by making it close turned the momentum around and helped Wawasee win the next two games, 15-10, 15-12.

"There were times that I thought they would just run on us. I was afraid if we went ahead and lost at that score (only 4 points), that emotionally the team wouldn't be able to rebound," Wawasee coach Jason Fleming said. "We started putting things together at the end of that first game which even though we lost it showed that the momentum had changed tides."

Really, it wasn't any magic formula or a change in the game plan for the Warriors; they just began to execute better, while the Trojans struggled with the rejuvenated play of Wawasee.

"I thought Wawasee picked their play up," Triton coach Gayle Perry said. "They started serving us deeper, and they started attacking out of the middle. They just started hitting the ball better, and we didn't block well. We got lazy and tired."

Wawasee closed the margin to 12-9 when junior Darcy Replogle came off the bench and gave the Warriors an emotional lift with 5 straight points, including two aces. Triton scored again to make it 13-9 before 4 more points by Wawasee tied the score.

The Trojans closed things out on two kills from Jennifer Weissert, but the message had been sent by the underdog Warriors.

"For the most part it was just better execution of the fundamentals that we need to execute to produce coverage on hitters," Fleming said. "We didn't make any drastic changes, just a few things here and there."

Triton again got the lead in game two, 5-1, but Wawasee wasted less time in closing the gap this time, getting another boost off their bench from senior Kendra Damer, who served five straight points to give the Warriors a 6-5 lead.

It was tied at nine when another bench performer, Andrew VanCleave, served up four straight points, including a kill and block each from Kari Beer and Kaiyra McLaughlin, to give Wawasee a 13-9 lead. The Warriors would go onto to win the second game, 15-10.

The third game might have been the entire match in a nutshell. Wawasee led early, 8-4, but watched as Triton ran off seven straight points, five on the serve of Megan Sarber, to take an 11-8 lead.

But Wawasee scored six of the final seven points, including six with Replogle serving again, to clinch the game and the match. Beer had two big kills during the run.

"Darcy Replogle as a junior stepped in tonight and played the best match I have seen her play all season, which added a little bit of a charge to the team," Fleming said. "Triton has a tough team. Coming in, I knew they had beaten some teams that we had lost to. I wasn't really sure we were going to be able to step up and do that. They did a nice job against a team that is playing as well as Triton is."

The Trojans entered the match with a record of 21-4 this year, giving them almost too much confidence. A problem that Perry doesn't see being there for the rest of the season and into the postseason.

"It was a good one to get us into our conference match on Thursday," Perry said. "We had the (IHSAA) draw today, and I think that was on their minds. We didn't come into this thinking about it quite as much as we should have."

Triton really didn't know a lot about Wawasee before the match, expect that the Warriors were only 15-12 on the season, but had enough athletic talent to make them dangerous.

"We rely on preparation, and coming in, I thought that might be a weakness for us," Perry said. "I thought we did a nice job of eventually finding our rhythm and our timing. We made some silly mistakes. We had too many serving errors. We are not going to win too many games with that many serving errors.

"There were some great rallies," she said. "They dug the ball well, and they blocked out of their minds. We had not seen a team block us like that all year."

Perry now hopes this loss sends a wakeup call to her talented Trojans.

"If you are going to lose, this is a good one to lose because it is right before the sectional, and I will have all their attention at practice," Perry said. "It was a very competitive match, and it wasn't sloppy."

Beer led Wawasee with 10 kills, while Replogle added 20 digs and four aces, Kara Mathew 20 assists, and McLaughlin 13 blocks.

For Triton, Jessica Kintzel had 13 kills, and Sarber added eight kills. Also, Heather Barron got 22 assists and an ace. Holly Hepler also had an ace.

In the JV match, Triton won 15-10, 15-12.

Triton (14-4) got four kills from Jessica Walker and three from Kendra Blackford. For Wawasee, Christy McGowen had six digs and Kim Troup collected three kills.

Triton (21-5) hosts Culver on Thursday, while Wawasee (16-12) hosts Northridge the same day. [[In-content Ad]]