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The Warsaw Tigers men’s volleyball varsity and junior varsity teams started their matches nearly 30 minutes late due to the delayed arrival of their guests, the Westville Blackhawks, by giving their opponents an earlier departure from Everwise Court in the Tiger Den with 3-0, and 2-0 respective sweeps.
The younger Tigers won their sets 25-20, and 25-23. The latter set required the JV volleyball squad to roar back from a 22-19 deficit with a 6-1 run.
The elder Tigers win was comprised of three convincing set victories: 25-9, 25-13, and 25-6.
While these spreads might be cause for celebrations, Warsaw’s varsity squad had difficulty separating from the Blackhawks in the second set’s first 17 rallies.
“We’d win on the first set,” Warsaw head volleyball coach Jason Fleming noted. “(We’d) get complacent in the second match. We want to keep going after opponents instead of them creeping back into matches. That happened a couple of times this year.”
Before Fleming could say, “here we go again” the Tigers moved off the 10-7 second set lead toward a 15-6 run to punctuate the 25-13 win.
When the third set launched, Warsaw used junior setter Mac Tucker (an opening 9-0 service run), and sophomore libero Silas Hill (6 straight service points) punctuated by authoritative front-line kills and blocks among seniors Levi Brath, Logan Carl, and Nolan Haussman.
The win, extending Warsaw’s set streak to 14, was punctuated with a mix of underclassmen finishing off Westville.
“The last two matches,” Fleming said, “when we’ve gone up on our opponents, I’ve had lineups like the one I finished with tonight: three sophomores, two freshman, and a senior.”
The IHSAA sanctioned men’s volleyball, moving it from a club sport, in the 2025 spring sports season. The story in the Tiger Den Thursday was an impressive development and participative growth in the program’s second season.
While many of the legacy club teams throughout the Hoosier State have been playing this entire millennium to date, Fleming wasn’t going to coddle his team, and after their first season (2025), the athletes who returned to this year’s program.
“We realized where we were when we played some of the Indianapolis teams who had years of club play already in place,” Fleming said. “I think playing some of the tougher teams in the early schedule… they don’t seem to be afraid. It’s a culture we built on early.”
The aforementioned seniors, earlier in the evening in a distant location from Fleming, echoed the same sentiment.
“I don't think there's a team that we've seen that we cannot compete with,” Brath said. “We've been close every game, exceeded expectations every game, and we like our chances.”
Haussman and Carl nodded in agreement without a moment of reservation.
Fleming shared his thoughts of his three seniors leading a team with relatively limited varsity experience aside from Brath, Carl, and libero Hill.
“Our seniors are great. We had three players come back this year and many swing players who stepped up this year. They have understood this year that – although these guys are athletic – this is a skill sport.
“They’ve had conversations about this with themselves and realized they can’t go in halfway.”
The seniors understood the assignment. Again, without Fleming nearby to set the tone of their discussion with the Times-Union, they’re meeting their leadership and culture building expectations.
Logan Carl remarked, “I say we have more experienced varsity players. We really focused on becoming skilled volleyball players, not just being athletic. (B)eing able to put my vertical jump into building some good hitting; last year I couldn't hit the ball as well, and I definitely say my passing (is) better.”
Levi Brath added, “I think last year we kind of leaned on natural athleticism and talent more than anything, and this year we can really take those skills and combine it with athleticism already in place. For example, we could jump last year we, but we are able to put it all together with technique while we’re airborne.”
Nolan Haussman spent most of his junior campaign in JV sets and matches. He earned meaningful varsity minutes as the 2025 postseason approached but knew he had to make sure Coach Fleming saw the work he put in from offseason into the 2026 season.
“The bump to varsity feels great!” Haussman exclaimed. “It's been a lot of hard work because I played some varsity last year in our sectional game. So, this year I had to put in a lot of hard work. Coach could see me working like I wanted to play varsity. A lot of that was sharpening the basics I learned in my first season: more finesse to go with the power.
“My coverage… just looking at the whole game from the perspective of both sides of the net. I’m reading the other teams’ plays better, and then also working on my hitting. My hitting got a lot better, being able to put (the ball) down the line or cross court - whatever is needed for the kill.”
The seniors keep the saws sharpened while being sure they set the tone for the program’s culture in tandem with Fleming’s leadership and strong technical guidance.
“My message to my upperclassmen was in four years,” Fleming noted, “this will be the capstone of the foundation you are laying right now… our underclassmen are our future, and our freshman class (19 in total) is huge in number and ability. Our future looks good. We graduate a lot of talent after this season - we truly do – but we have the talent to fill it in.”
Warsaw’s men’s volleyball team is blending a serious approach to accelerated development, but among coaches, seniors, and the team’s abundance in youth they are visibly having a good time.
Fleming’s athletes certainly understood their assignment.
