SOUTH WHITLEY - The Whitko Wildcats hung with the Manchester Squires for spurts, but in the end, just didn't have enough to pick up a Three Rivers Conference win.
In the Squires' three-game road victory Thursday, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17, Whitko actually held leads in each game, including a 15-9 margin in the opener."We used a bunch of different lineups tonight," Manchester coach Sarah Lochner said. "My middle player (Nicole Binkley) is out with a knee injury, so we were just kind of mixing it up, but we had some communication errors. That kind of kept our game up and down the whole night."
Even though Manchester routinely fell behind, the games never really seemed to get out of their grasp.
The biggest deficit the Squires faced was the 15-9 mark in the opening game, but following a timeout, the girls came out and ripped off four-straight points, en route to outscoring the Wildcats 16-3 down the stretch for the 25-18 win.
"The biggest thing is, we've got to stop runs," Todd Volk said of his Wildcats, who saw the Squires go on 6-0 and 7-0 spurts in Game 1. "I think they went on a six or seven point run in every one of those games. We'll learn to stop that. I've got to get some leadership out of my seniors, so we can stop those runs."
Manchester did use its fair share of runs, but Whitko also inflicted many of their own wounds.
In the opening game, 18 of Manchester's points came via Whitko miscues, such as serving the ball into the net, palming the ball or net violations.
Game 2 went much the same as the first, with Whitko once again jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead, but as before, Manchester used a 6-0 run to take the lead. Whitko went on a 4-0 run, as well as a 6-0 spurt later on to regain the lead at 12-9, but a 6-0 run by the Squires late in the game led to the 25-16 win.
"Manchester has a nice team," Volk said of the Squires, who also defeated his team in three games back on Aug. 28. "They beat Columbia City the other night in five games. I know Columbia City's probably not where they've been in the past, but they play well."
Manchester really used its service game to its advantage in Game 2, using aces to score six of their 12 points in the frame.
"All we worked on this week was serve-receive," Volk said. "When we went to North Miami last week, they just killed us on those. I mean, we can work on hitting all day long, but if you don't get that pass to the setter it's tough."
On the night, the Squires were led by junior Tara Gnagy's five aces.
"We do rely pretty heavily on our serves," Lochner said. "We work on really being aggressive servers, so we rely on that being consistent. We did have a lot of service errors tonight, which is pretty bad for us overall. But we work on that to be one of our strong points."
Lochner's other strong points are seniors Katie Bowers, Becka Guthrie and Brittany Sievers.
In the victory, Sievers had a match-high seven kills and five blocks, while Guthrie finished with nine assists and Bowers had six kills, an ace, a block and five digs.
"We count on them to put the ball away for us," Lochner said. "Being seniors, we look for them to be leaders and always talking, getting things done.
"We've had other people contributing, like junior Tara Gnagy and our other senior Amber Fratus," she added. "They've really had a good week."
One offensive weapon Lochner's team is without is the junior Binkley, who was wearing a knee brace, but expects to return this year.
"She did something to the tendon in her knee, so she's going to be out for about a week," Lochner said. "We're a lot luckier than we thought."
After losing the first two games, Whitko once again began the third with a 3-0 lead, but after an 8-1 run helped Manchester grab the lead, the Squires never let it go, leaving Whitko winless on the season.
"We are improving," Volk said of his 0-11 team. "The record doesn't show it, but I was very pleased with the effort tonight. If we'd have played with that same effort in some of our earlier matches this year, we'd have a different record."
Among the girls giving Volk the effort he likes is junior Amber Blankenship.
In their latest defeat, Blankenship finished with a match-high 10 assists, while also posting six digs and an ace.
"I thought she did a nice job tonight," Volk said of his setter. "She distributed the ball well, which is a big thing with a setter. When you're doing that, you're keeping the defense thinking and working."
Most of Blankenship's assists went to either senior Katie Jeffrey, who had six kills, two aces, three blocks and three digs, or junior Courtney Carver, who who finished with six kills and two blocks.
"She's starting to think the game," Volk said about Carver. "In the past, she would just tip it for the sake of tipping it. Now she's starting to read that when the blocker isn't getting there, she swings away, but if the blocker is there, she'll dump it."
The Squires may be sitting in a much better position than the Wildcats, but that doesn't mean Lochner's completely satisfied with her team.
"We continually have problems with communication and ball handling," she said. "But we're coming around. We're building our confidence. We had a really rough season last year, so with every win, our confidence grows."
Manchester will go for its next win Saturday at the Wabash Invitational, played at Northfield, beginning at 9 a.m. Whitko is back in TRC action Monday at home against Rochester, beginning at 6 p.m.
