Still undefeated in Northern Lakes Conference play this season, the Warsaw volleyball team hit the road Thursday night for a meeting with cross-county rivals Wawasee. The Lady Tigers began the game a bit slowly, but finished with power on their way to a 3-0 victory at the Hardwood Teepee.
“We tell the girls to be proud of who you play for, but with that comes expectations and pressure on us to keep on winning. We’re going for three straight conference titles,” Warsaw head coach Chandra Hepler said after the game, “Our seniors want that as a part of our legacy and we have juniors who have the goal of never losing a conference game.”
With a raucous student section cheering them on, it was the Warriors that enjoyed a fast start to the contest. The home team scored six of the first seven points in the game, using a combination of rock-solid defense as well as some perfectly placed kills. Eventually, the Lady Tigers would tighten things up, with back to back kills by Maggie Hollon shrinking the lead to one before a pair of aces by the senior gave the visitors the lead.
With Warsaw taking control of the game, Wawasee senior Mackenzie Hackleman used an ace to get her team back within one. The aces remained the story of the first set as Lexy Whittenberger had two in a row to put the visitors back up by four. Warsaw had now fully shaken off the slow start, stringing together another long series of points to extend their lead to eight.
Wawasee put together a few points in the waning moments of the set, but it was not enough to stop the Lady Tigers from finishing off game one with a 25-15 win on yet another kill by Hollon.
“Having coached her for her entire career, I feel like a proud mom,” Hepler said. ‘She’s a player I’ve seen her go from a little girl with starry eyes and visions of being a big time player to now our underclassmen wanting to be her. To see what a role model she has become is a pretty neat thing.”
While the Lady Warriors wound up scoring the first two points of the second set, the start for the home side wasn’t as pronounced as it was a game earlier. The Lady Tigers scored the next four points to get in front. Wawasee was able to tie things up ast four all, but all that did was lead to yet another extended Warsaw run that led to a 10-4 lead for the visitors and resulted in a timeout. Hollon continued to be unstoppable, racking up the kills and making it look easy.

    Wawasee senior Hannah Truex keeps the volley going during the second set of Thursday night's home match against Warsaw...Nieter

After three more points for Warsaw following the break, the Lady Warriors were finally able to stop the bleeding. An ace by freshman Madison Branam extended the lead to double digits. The avalanche continued as the Lady Tigers made it a 15-point lead just moments later. Branam’s third ace of the run made it 22-5 and inched the visitors closer to a commanding 2-0 lead. The 25-6 set was finished off by a kill by Emma Stanley to put Warsaw a game away from yet another conference victory.
There would be no quick start for the home team in the third set, as Warsaw scored the first five points of the game and never looked back from there. Ellie Hepler, Warsaw’s defensive stud of a libero, got it done offensively with a pair of aces to make it 9-1. Wawasee’s libero, Josie Sabin answered almost immediately after with an ace of her own to shrink the deficit to seven.
Not long after that, CeCe Goode got in on the fun with a monster kill to make it a 10-point game. Another freshman making waves this season for Warsaw, Reagan Edwards had an even bigger point on the following play, putting together a kill so emphatic the entire Lady Tiger bench jumped up in unison.
Wawasee was able to delay the inevitable with some big points during the final stretch to keep things from getting too far out of hand, but the end result was still the same. Fittingly, it was an ace for Hollon that finished things off in a 25-12 game three win to seal the set and the match.
Warsaw (16-6, 5-0 NLC) will host the Warsaw Invitational Saturday, while Wawasee (7-11, 0-4 NLC) will play at the Bremen Invite this weekend.
“We’re happy to finally be able to play an invite in our gym. Plus, it’s one we’ve never won it, so that’s going to be a goal for us,” Hepler said. “We’ve got a lot of great competition that comes in every year and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”