Wawasee Spikers Rally To Beat Triton
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Already trailing 2-0 in the match, Wawasee was down 23-20 in the third game, but reeled off the final five points of the game, including four-straight aces by senior Kasey Napier, to win 25-23.
Receiving a second life, Wawasee went on to win Game 4 25-23 and the fifth 15-7, evening its season record at 15-15.
Prior to the third-game comeback, the Wawasee Lady Warriors looked lethargic and just going through the motions.
That observation was also spotted by Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips.
“During the first game, I called a timeout and told them, ‘It looks like you don’t think you’re going to win. You look like you know you’re going to mess up again and lose again,’” Phillips said. “Why were we missing serves in the middle of the net? It had nothing to do with their ability to hit the ball over the net. It had to do with what they were thinking when they went back to serve.”
And Triton took advantage of the negative mentality.
Winning the opening game 25-22, Triton trailed the second 16-9, before rallying to win it 25-23.
That rally in Game 2 only left coach Samantha Keel with more questions as to why her Lady Trojans blew the two-game lead.
“That’s kind of been our M.O. for this year,” Keel said. “We get up, but we just can’t keep the lead. That’s really confusing to me, because in Game 2, we were down 16-9 and we still came back to win. As a coach, that’s kind of confusing.”
Despite the loss, Keel pointed to positives as the season winds down, with Plymouth coming to town Thursday before Class 1A Sectional 51 begins at Oregon-Davis High School Tuesday at 6 p.m. with Triton facing Argos.
“To lose in five to Wawasee is a major accomplishment for little (Class) 1A Triton volleyball,” Keel said. “The end of our schedule is very rough. We have (Class 3A No. 4) New Prairie, we have Jimtown, we have Plymouth, we have Wawasee. We play these big, massive schools, and here we are little, tiny Triton and we build it up with that (schedule) going into sectionals.”
‘Little’ Triton did have a couple players come up big, as junior Lauren Hostrawser had 10 kills and four blocks and sophomore Jaela Meister posted six kills and three blocks.
“Jaela’s blocking ability for a sophomore is great,” Keel said. “(She and Lauren) have an amazing ability to just read the ball and go up and block it by themselves. They don’t need someone else to set the block for them. They just go and block the ball. Really, Lauren and Jaela played a great match tonight. It’s nice to have them both playing a good match instead of just Jaela having a good match or just Lauren having a good match.”
Along with Hostrawser and Meister’s production, junior Becca Kennedy had 11 kills for Triton and senior Emilee Koontz finished the contest with seven kills and four aces.
While Keel was able to take a moral victory out of the loss, a setback for Wawasee wouldn’t have had the same effect on Phillips.
“Going into the season, I don’t mark down a lot of ‘W’s going into the (Northern Lakes Conference) season, so this is one of those matches we have to have,” he said. “It’s one where we have to really challenge ourselves to make sure, when we get an opponent outside the conference, we can do what we need to do to win.”
Making it tougher to get those wins has been the loss of junior setter Alli Ousley.
Suffering a concussion, Ousley’s been out the past two weeks, but Phillips expects her to be back on the court Thursday at Northridge.
With Ousley out, sophomore Tia Long’s been filling in and had 34 assists and 15 digs against Triton.
“Tia Long is doing the best she can,” Phillips said. “She’s doing a good job.”
One of Long’s jobs is setting up Wawasee’s attack, which is led by senior Lydia Katsaropoulos, who posted 19 kills in the victory.
“I told (Long) at the beginning of Game 3 that she needed to give Lydia Katsaropoulos the ball until her body falls apart,” Phillips said. “‘Until she falls on the court and can no longer move, she should get as many balls as possible and we’re going to ride her until we win or lose the next three games.’ She did a good job of that.”
When Ousley is back on the court for Thursday’s regular season finale, she’ll need to play at her best against a strong Northridge team.
No matter the result Thursday, Phillips is optimistic the matchup will prepare his girls for their Class 3A Sectional 21 match against No. 7 Fairfield Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. at West Noble High School.
“It’s a great test to have right at the end of season before we play Fairfield,” he said. “That’s one positive you can automatically take out of that match. You talk about playing a big team with a lot of height that runs fast, has won a lot of NLC games and can show us something we can’t duplicate in practice.”
WAWASEE DEF. TRITON 22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-7
Aces – Kasey Napier (W) 5, Aly Anderson (W) 4, Emilee Koontz (T) 4, Hunter Gaerte (W) 3, Addison Ayres (W) 3; Assists – Tia Long (W) 34, Krystal Sellers (T) 28; Blocks – Lauren Hostrawser (T) 4, Jaela Meister (T) 3, Ayres (W) 2, Meghan Fretz (W) 2; Digs – Anderson (W) 43, Gaerte (W) 31, Napier (W) 19, Casey Scott (T) 16, Long (W) 15, Sellers (T) 7; Kills – Lydia Katsaropoulos (W) 19, Becca Kennedy (T) 10, Hostrawser (T) 10, Ayres (W) 7, Koontz (T) 7, Meister (T) 6, Gaerte (W) 5, Fretz (W) 5
Wawasee Record: 15-15
JV – Wawasee def. Triton 25-24, 25-20
Wawasee JV Stats: Aces – Becca Anderson 8; Assists – Taylor Mock 12; Digs – Seaquinn Bright 12, Ashley Beer 9, B. Anderson 6; Kills – B. Anderson 6, Bright 4, Liz Hardy 3
Wawasee JV Record: 13-11[[In-content Ad]]
Already trailing 2-0 in the match, Wawasee was down 23-20 in the third game, but reeled off the final five points of the game, including four-straight aces by senior Kasey Napier, to win 25-23.
Receiving a second life, Wawasee went on to win Game 4 25-23 and the fifth 15-7, evening its season record at 15-15.
Prior to the third-game comeback, the Wawasee Lady Warriors looked lethargic and just going through the motions.
That observation was also spotted by Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips.
“During the first game, I called a timeout and told them, ‘It looks like you don’t think you’re going to win. You look like you know you’re going to mess up again and lose again,’” Phillips said. “Why were we missing serves in the middle of the net? It had nothing to do with their ability to hit the ball over the net. It had to do with what they were thinking when they went back to serve.”
And Triton took advantage of the negative mentality.
Winning the opening game 25-22, Triton trailed the second 16-9, before rallying to win it 25-23.
That rally in Game 2 only left coach Samantha Keel with more questions as to why her Lady Trojans blew the two-game lead.
“That’s kind of been our M.O. for this year,” Keel said. “We get up, but we just can’t keep the lead. That’s really confusing to me, because in Game 2, we were down 16-9 and we still came back to win. As a coach, that’s kind of confusing.”
Despite the loss, Keel pointed to positives as the season winds down, with Plymouth coming to town Thursday before Class 1A Sectional 51 begins at Oregon-Davis High School Tuesday at 6 p.m. with Triton facing Argos.
“To lose in five to Wawasee is a major accomplishment for little (Class) 1A Triton volleyball,” Keel said. “The end of our schedule is very rough. We have (Class 3A No. 4) New Prairie, we have Jimtown, we have Plymouth, we have Wawasee. We play these big, massive schools, and here we are little, tiny Triton and we build it up with that (schedule) going into sectionals.”
‘Little’ Triton did have a couple players come up big, as junior Lauren Hostrawser had 10 kills and four blocks and sophomore Jaela Meister posted six kills and three blocks.
“Jaela’s blocking ability for a sophomore is great,” Keel said. “(She and Lauren) have an amazing ability to just read the ball and go up and block it by themselves. They don’t need someone else to set the block for them. They just go and block the ball. Really, Lauren and Jaela played a great match tonight. It’s nice to have them both playing a good match instead of just Jaela having a good match or just Lauren having a good match.”
Along with Hostrawser and Meister’s production, junior Becca Kennedy had 11 kills for Triton and senior Emilee Koontz finished the contest with seven kills and four aces.
While Keel was able to take a moral victory out of the loss, a setback for Wawasee wouldn’t have had the same effect on Phillips.
“Going into the season, I don’t mark down a lot of ‘W’s going into the (Northern Lakes Conference) season, so this is one of those matches we have to have,” he said. “It’s one where we have to really challenge ourselves to make sure, when we get an opponent outside the conference, we can do what we need to do to win.”
Making it tougher to get those wins has been the loss of junior setter Alli Ousley.
Suffering a concussion, Ousley’s been out the past two weeks, but Phillips expects her to be back on the court Thursday at Northridge.
With Ousley out, sophomore Tia Long’s been filling in and had 34 assists and 15 digs against Triton.
“Tia Long is doing the best she can,” Phillips said. “She’s doing a good job.”
One of Long’s jobs is setting up Wawasee’s attack, which is led by senior Lydia Katsaropoulos, who posted 19 kills in the victory.
“I told (Long) at the beginning of Game 3 that she needed to give Lydia Katsaropoulos the ball until her body falls apart,” Phillips said. “‘Until she falls on the court and can no longer move, she should get as many balls as possible and we’re going to ride her until we win or lose the next three games.’ She did a good job of that.”
When Ousley is back on the court for Thursday’s regular season finale, she’ll need to play at her best against a strong Northridge team.
No matter the result Thursday, Phillips is optimistic the matchup will prepare his girls for their Class 3A Sectional 21 match against No. 7 Fairfield Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. at West Noble High School.
“It’s a great test to have right at the end of season before we play Fairfield,” he said. “That’s one positive you can automatically take out of that match. You talk about playing a big team with a lot of height that runs fast, has won a lot of NLC games and can show us something we can’t duplicate in practice.”
WAWASEE DEF. TRITON 22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-7
Aces – Kasey Napier (W) 5, Aly Anderson (W) 4, Emilee Koontz (T) 4, Hunter Gaerte (W) 3, Addison Ayres (W) 3; Assists – Tia Long (W) 34, Krystal Sellers (T) 28; Blocks – Lauren Hostrawser (T) 4, Jaela Meister (T) 3, Ayres (W) 2, Meghan Fretz (W) 2; Digs – Anderson (W) 43, Gaerte (W) 31, Napier (W) 19, Casey Scott (T) 16, Long (W) 15, Sellers (T) 7; Kills – Lydia Katsaropoulos (W) 19, Becca Kennedy (T) 10, Hostrawser (T) 10, Ayres (W) 7, Koontz (T) 7, Meister (T) 6, Gaerte (W) 5, Fretz (W) 5
Wawasee Record: 15-15
JV – Wawasee def. Triton 25-24, 25-20
Wawasee JV Stats: Aces – Becca Anderson 8; Assists – Taylor Mock 12; Digs – Seaquinn Bright 12, Ashley Beer 9, B. Anderson 6; Kills – B. Anderson 6, Bright 4, Liz Hardy 3
Wawasee JV Record: 13-11[[In-content Ad]]
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