Wawasee Volleyball Team Spikes Manchester
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
The Wawasee Lady Warriors played its last non-conference match Tuesday before NLC action begins later this week, defeating the visiting Manchester Lady Squires (1-8) in three games, 25-15, 25-13, 25-21.
Going into Thursday’s NLC opener at Plymouth, the Lady Warriors sit at 9-1, that one setback being to Class 3A No. 5 Fairfield (25-15, 29-27, 25-19) back on Aug. 22 in Syracuse.
Outside of the Fairfield match, no team on Wawasee’s schedule would necessarily scare other NLC teams, but Phillips is alright with that.
“We’re 9-1, and that’s pretty good,” he said. “I don’t care who you play at the start of a season, 9-1 is pretty good.”
And at 9-1, Phillips is happy with where his girls are, but doesn’t want them to be satisfied.
“Plymouth is our most important match of the year at this point,” he said. “How we come out Thursday, and how we play, sets the tone for the goal of, ‘Are we going to come out and compete against the NLC or are we going to let our record whither away once the conference season starts?’ So, 9-1 is a good start, but it will look different if it’s 10-7, 10-8 when we get to Warsaw or someone like that.”
According to Phillips, Wawasee’s fast start is a natural progression, as they’ve learned his style since his arrival three years after serving as an assistant at Warsaw for two seasons.
“It was easier to make adjustments and we were able to do more things during the preseason,” Phillips said. “It’s just easier to make adjustments, easier to make reads, easier for everybody to kind of understand everything that’s going on.”
While Wawasee adapted to its coach, the Lady Squires are still in the process of doing that under first-year coach Rebekah Brown.
“We’re using this season to do a lot of teaching, a lot of growing,” Brown said. “Because this is my first year coaching and teaching them, there’s a lot of new things I’m trying to implement that they haven’t had in the past. So, even my seniors are learning new stuff. That’s been a process, that by the end of the season, you might see come around a little bit more.”
Until the end of the season, Manchester’s taking its lumps, that latest being at the hands of the Lady Warriors.
Manchester never really threatened Wawasee, and looked to be packing in it after falling behind 10-3 in the third game.
Instead of riding her girls, Brown maintained a positive outlook, which her team responded to by scoring seven-straight points, knotting the score at 10-10.
Wawasee ended up winning the game 25-21, but Brown was pleased with the small steps taken instead of becoming red in the face.
“It’s hard as a coach, because, if I let my frustrations show too much, then they start to feed off that,” she said. “I called a timeout earlier just to encourage the good things I saw. I’m tempted to call them when the bad things are happening, but they already know they’ve messed up. I’m trying to encourage and reinforce the good things and see if we can continue those.”
Phillips has been seeing a lot of good things this year, outside of the loss of senior outside hitter Lydia Katsaropoulos, who suffered a concussion during the Elwood Invitational on Aug. 24.
Wawasee has won without her, as the three-year starter has been battling injuries her entire prep career, and must continue to do so.
“It’s really bad that Lydia’s out and I feel horrible for her, because she makes this team even better,” Phillips said. “For us to be 9-1 and win a couple more matches and a tournament with her not playing very much in the championship, just gives us more confidence that when she’s back, we can go to another level.”
Phillips commented that there’s no timetable for Katsaropoulos’ return, but he does know what comes Thursday.
“Plymouth has probably played an overall higher level of competition than we have at this point,” he said of the Lady Pilgrims, who are 4-4 going into tonight’s match against South Bend Riley. “They had (Muncie) Burris in their tournament, which they beat. We know they’re going to be ready to go. We know they had some people come back, so their core is there. If we don’t come out and play the way we know we can play, then we’re going to struggle. But if we do, we have a shot.”
Going into the match with one loss, Phillips believes his girls can perform well, but only time will tell if he’s right.
“They can be satisfied with 9-1 – I’ll give them that,” he said. “What do we need to fix? What do we need to do? We just need to play volleyball now. They know what they need to do.”
Manchester opens its Three Rivers Conference campaign Thursday at Wabash.
WAWASEE DEF. MANCHESTER 25-15, 25-13, 25-21
Aces – Hunter Gaerte (W) 3, Alli Ousley (W) 3; Assists – Ousley (W) 14, Rae Bedke (M) 11; Blocks – Corrie Osborne (M) 2, Digs – Aly Anderson (W) 23, Marret Metzger (M) 15, Gaerte (W) 13, Kaitlyn Parrett (M) 6; Kills – Ousley (W) 6, Cierra Carter (M) 6, Kasey Napier (W) 5, Osborne (M) 5, Leah Sorg (M) 5, Gaerte (W) 4
Records: Wawasee 9-1, Manchester 1-8
JV – Wawasee def. Manchester 17-25, 25-24, 15-4
JV Stats: Aces – Hallie Sorg (M) 6, Tia Long (W) 3, Ali Casper (M) 3, Becca Anderson (W) 2; Assists – Long (W) 9, Caseper (M) 9; Digs – Long (W) 10, Celina Carter (M) 10, Ashley Beer (W) 8, B. Anderson (W) 8; Kills – Liz Hardy (W) 4, Seaquinn Bright (W) 3, Leiah Brandenburg (M) 3, Sorg (M) 3, Kayleigh Rhodes (W) 2, B. Anderson (W) 2, Karly Eichenauer (M) 2, Lindsay Walters (M) 2
Wawasee JV Record: 6-3[[In-content Ad]]
The Wawasee Lady Warriors played its last non-conference match Tuesday before NLC action begins later this week, defeating the visiting Manchester Lady Squires (1-8) in three games, 25-15, 25-13, 25-21.
Going into Thursday’s NLC opener at Plymouth, the Lady Warriors sit at 9-1, that one setback being to Class 3A No. 5 Fairfield (25-15, 29-27, 25-19) back on Aug. 22 in Syracuse.
Outside of the Fairfield match, no team on Wawasee’s schedule would necessarily scare other NLC teams, but Phillips is alright with that.
“We’re 9-1, and that’s pretty good,” he said. “I don’t care who you play at the start of a season, 9-1 is pretty good.”
And at 9-1, Phillips is happy with where his girls are, but doesn’t want them to be satisfied.
“Plymouth is our most important match of the year at this point,” he said. “How we come out Thursday, and how we play, sets the tone for the goal of, ‘Are we going to come out and compete against the NLC or are we going to let our record whither away once the conference season starts?’ So, 9-1 is a good start, but it will look different if it’s 10-7, 10-8 when we get to Warsaw or someone like that.”
According to Phillips, Wawasee’s fast start is a natural progression, as they’ve learned his style since his arrival three years after serving as an assistant at Warsaw for two seasons.
“It was easier to make adjustments and we were able to do more things during the preseason,” Phillips said. “It’s just easier to make adjustments, easier to make reads, easier for everybody to kind of understand everything that’s going on.”
While Wawasee adapted to its coach, the Lady Squires are still in the process of doing that under first-year coach Rebekah Brown.
“We’re using this season to do a lot of teaching, a lot of growing,” Brown said. “Because this is my first year coaching and teaching them, there’s a lot of new things I’m trying to implement that they haven’t had in the past. So, even my seniors are learning new stuff. That’s been a process, that by the end of the season, you might see come around a little bit more.”
Until the end of the season, Manchester’s taking its lumps, that latest being at the hands of the Lady Warriors.
Manchester never really threatened Wawasee, and looked to be packing in it after falling behind 10-3 in the third game.
Instead of riding her girls, Brown maintained a positive outlook, which her team responded to by scoring seven-straight points, knotting the score at 10-10.
Wawasee ended up winning the game 25-21, but Brown was pleased with the small steps taken instead of becoming red in the face.
“It’s hard as a coach, because, if I let my frustrations show too much, then they start to feed off that,” she said. “I called a timeout earlier just to encourage the good things I saw. I’m tempted to call them when the bad things are happening, but they already know they’ve messed up. I’m trying to encourage and reinforce the good things and see if we can continue those.”
Phillips has been seeing a lot of good things this year, outside of the loss of senior outside hitter Lydia Katsaropoulos, who suffered a concussion during the Elwood Invitational on Aug. 24.
Wawasee has won without her, as the three-year starter has been battling injuries her entire prep career, and must continue to do so.
“It’s really bad that Lydia’s out and I feel horrible for her, because she makes this team even better,” Phillips said. “For us to be 9-1 and win a couple more matches and a tournament with her not playing very much in the championship, just gives us more confidence that when she’s back, we can go to another level.”
Phillips commented that there’s no timetable for Katsaropoulos’ return, but he does know what comes Thursday.
“Plymouth has probably played an overall higher level of competition than we have at this point,” he said of the Lady Pilgrims, who are 4-4 going into tonight’s match against South Bend Riley. “They had (Muncie) Burris in their tournament, which they beat. We know they’re going to be ready to go. We know they had some people come back, so their core is there. If we don’t come out and play the way we know we can play, then we’re going to struggle. But if we do, we have a shot.”
Going into the match with one loss, Phillips believes his girls can perform well, but only time will tell if he’s right.
“They can be satisfied with 9-1 – I’ll give them that,” he said. “What do we need to fix? What do we need to do? We just need to play volleyball now. They know what they need to do.”
Manchester opens its Three Rivers Conference campaign Thursday at Wabash.
WAWASEE DEF. MANCHESTER 25-15, 25-13, 25-21
Aces – Hunter Gaerte (W) 3, Alli Ousley (W) 3; Assists – Ousley (W) 14, Rae Bedke (M) 11; Blocks – Corrie Osborne (M) 2, Digs – Aly Anderson (W) 23, Marret Metzger (M) 15, Gaerte (W) 13, Kaitlyn Parrett (M) 6; Kills – Ousley (W) 6, Cierra Carter (M) 6, Kasey Napier (W) 5, Osborne (M) 5, Leah Sorg (M) 5, Gaerte (W) 4
Records: Wawasee 9-1, Manchester 1-8
JV – Wawasee def. Manchester 17-25, 25-24, 15-4
JV Stats: Aces – Hallie Sorg (M) 6, Tia Long (W) 3, Ali Casper (M) 3, Becca Anderson (W) 2; Assists – Long (W) 9, Caseper (M) 9; Digs – Long (W) 10, Celina Carter (M) 10, Ashley Beer (W) 8, B. Anderson (W) 8; Kills – Liz Hardy (W) 4, Seaquinn Bright (W) 3, Leiah Brandenburg (M) 3, Sorg (M) 3, Kayleigh Rhodes (W) 2, B. Anderson (W) 2, Karly Eichenauer (M) 2, Lindsay Walters (M) 2
Wawasee JV Record: 6-3[[In-content Ad]]
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