SOUTH WHITLEY – After a close call in Game 1, the Wawasee volleyball team settled down to get a three-game sweep at Whitko Tuesday night, 25-22, 25-21, 25-16. “Tonight was an achievement of one of our goals,” Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips said. “With 17 wins, there's no way they can have a losing record. That's a big celebration. For the first time in a while, with five matches left, you can't have a losing record. You're going to have a winning season.” The win left the Wawasee Lady Warriors with a 17-11 mark going into Thursday's Northern Lakes Conference home match against Elkhart Memorial, while Whitko coach Brandy Smith saw some familiar tendencies from her squad, which fell to 5-15. “I'm very happy with several things we did,” Smith said. “We played some long rallies, we were able to stick with them, but we're still not communicating like we should on every single ball. I have girls looking at each other and the ball hitting the floor. The communication is still not where it needs to be.” In the opening game, the two teams went back-and-forth, exchanging the lead five times and playing with a tied score on 13 occasions. The last tied score was 20-20 and led Phillips to call a timeout. “We call a timeout at 20-20 to basically just say, 'Look, get five points. Whatever you have to do. You don't have to do anything special or anything crazy. Just do your job,’” Phillips said. Wawasee came out of the timeout and scored five of the next seven points, taking the game and control of the match. In the opening-game win, senior Anne Beer was tough for Whitko to contain, posting seven of her 11 kills, which accompanied three aces. “I thought Anne Beer had her best offensive night, which is really good looking forward,” Phillips said. Wawasee junior Hunter Gaerte led her squad with 12 kills, with senior Taylor Spangle adding nine, despite going against Whitko's height, led by junior Whitney Hobbs. “She's tall and we deal with that all the time,” Phillips said. “I thought we did pretty well. Our block did pretty well, and another focus is to just get our block there and get some touches – not necessarily stuffs, but balls we can play up.” With those defensive touches at the net, Beer also recorded 18 digs, followed by sophomore Alli Ousley’s 13 and Gaerte’s 12, allowing Ousley to lead the team with 28 assists. For Whitko, the Lady Wildcats were paced by sophomore Maddie Gawthrop’s seven kills, senior Meghan Peters’ 15 assists and three blocks each from Hobbs and junior Taylor Zwick. Along with taking on Wawasee, Whitko also worked to raise over $300 for the breast cancer foundations in Kosciusko and Whitley counties, as the game was a "Dig Pink" match, featuring raffles and the team wearing pink shirts. “We had excellent crowd support tonight, so we couldn't have asked for anything better there,” Smith said. “The girls were definitely pumped up. They just get into their old Whitko mentality, that when we get down (we stay down).” Up next for Whitko is a Thursday trip to Fort Wayne Canterbury, while Wawasee will look to build on its 17 wins over the rest of the season. “They've achieved the winning season, now can you get to 20 wins with three wins in those next five matches and go into the sectional with confidence,” Phillips said. “That's really our goal for the next couple weeks.”
