Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
PERU - NorthWood entered Saturday's 3A volleyball semistate confident that it could knock off its opponent - No. 1 Delta.
And that confidence was evident in the first game as the Panthers put a scare into the Eagles with a 16-14 win.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, it didn't last.
The confidence seemed to go to the other side of the net after that first game. The Eagles, awakened by the first-game scare, got more confident and rode that to wins in the final two games, 15-5, 15-8, in the semifinals of the Peru Volleyball Semistate.
Delta went on to win the semistate championship with a win over Bellmont, 15-7, 15-7, in the title match.
"Delta is a great team. But we played with them," NorthWood coach Peg Bough said. "If we could have put another game together like the first, we would have been OK. But we couldn't."
"They weren't an awesome team," she said of Delta. "But the team that played better won today."
The Panthers enjoyed an incredible run through the first season of class volleyball, running up a gaudy 30-5 record en route to the school's first Northern Lakes Conference championship in a decade and sectional and regional titles as well.
"They are great kids. They played as a team," Bough said. "They were a team off the court as well. And we didn't get beat today by not being a team."
In the first game, the Panthers more than played with the top-ranked team in Class 3A.
NorthWood stormed out to an 8-1 lead behind three aces from Angela Hattery. Delta closed the gap to 8-7 with six straight points.
The lead was 12-7 in favor of NorthWood when Delta again closed the gap to 13-12. The Panthers eventually got point No. 14 and had two chances to close out the first-game, but couldn't get it done.
Eventually, the Eagles knotted the scored at 14-all. A kill by Hattery gave the Panthers a side out, a kill by Colleen Miller gave them point No. 15 and a kill by Jamie Gill was good for point No. 16 and the first game win.
Delta opened up game two just as NorthWood entered the first game - on fire. Delta opened up a 4-0 lead and stretched it to 7-1. It was 11-3, and the Eagles never looked back in winning 15-5.
Despite the domination by the Eagles in the second game, it was all even and the score went back to zero. NorthWood still had a chance at the upset. All the Panthers had to do was get back to the level they established in the first game.
It never happened.
NorthWood led early 2-0, but Delta went on a 7-1 streak to open a 7-3 advantage. The Panthers closed the gap to 8-7 when Gill came up with a big block.
It was as close as NorthWood would get. Delta's 5-1 run from there closed out the game, the match, and ultimately, the season for the Panthers.
"Our seniors worked very hard and have to be proud of themselves," Bough said. "They had good high school careers. There is no shame losing to the No. 1 team and coming very close to beating them."
The difference in the match was the tough serving the Eagles threw on them, especially from Delta's Jessica Smith. Delta was able to keep NorthWood off balance with that tough serving, and never really allowed the potent Panther offense to get on track.
"We started out the second game making errors, and we had trouble passing their serves," Bough said. "Usually serves are very predictable, but theirs weren't. A big key was not being able to establish any offense off their serves.
"After the first game, we never established a strong attack," she said. "We didn't put any pressure on them. Too many times we just gave them easy passes over the net."
The Eagles also used a little variation to their offense to get that going. NorthWood enjoyed the height advantage over Delta, so when the Eagles needed the big point, they went to the "offspeed" stuff.
Tactical tips, especially from Julie Zylka, were able to keep the block of NorthWood from becoming much of a factor after the first game.
"We tried to shut down their quick kills," Bough said. "Then they went to the tip, and we didn't anticipate that well."
Hattery and Gill led the Panthers with nine kills each, while Hattery added nine assists and six digs.
Also, Amy Zercher had seven kills and five blocks, Natalie Will five kills and six digs, Miller three blocks and Marla Yoder 10 digs and 13 assists.
