SYRACUSE - After blowing leads in the first two games, the Triton Lady Trojans volleyball team rallied to win the next three Tuesday at Wawasee.
In the opening game on Wawasee's senior night, Triton led 22-20 down the stretch, but lost 25-22. Following that, the Lady Trojans looked to be in control with a 22-21 lead, but like the first game, faltered and lost 25-22.However, on the verge of a sweep, Triton (11-13) fought back against Wawasee (10-21) with some good defense to win the third (25-15), fourth (26-24) and fifth (15-7) games.
"Coming toward the end of the season, I know they want to get a couple more wins, so they fought hard in that third game," Triton coach Terrin Meister said. "In the fourth game, we got momentum and in the fifth, we ran away with it."
Along with the defense, junior Megan Howdeshell also began to came through in the final three games, leading the way with a match-high 19 kills.
"Her game was a little off in the first two games, but she got a handle on a couple balls in the third game," Meister said. "Her hitting helped with the momentum change."
Howdeshell's hitting may have contributed to the change in momentum, but Wawasee coach Amy Miller thought her team helped with it too.
"We slowed," she said. "We've been missing (freshman Lydia Katsaropoulos) and we had (junior Haley Hawkins) in a car accident this weekend. However, Sarah (Steele) did an awesome job. I've got to give her credit."
The strength for Wawasee was its serving, as the team finished the match with 18 aces, led by senior Andi Banghart's seven and junior Gabi Routson's six.
"It wasn't necessarily serving, it was just some ball-handling errors, not being where we should and not putting the ball in play," Miller said. "It's just dumb stuff that shouldn't be happening right now."
Playing without Hawkins and Katsaropoulos, Miller had to shorten her rotation, leaving senior Molly Studer on the floor for an extended time, which affected her service game toward the end of the match.
"Molly played all night long, so she was getting tired and had to stay down," Miller said about Studer, who had a match-high 26 digs. "So, she had a hard time controlling (her serves) and that takes away a lot. It takes away one of your strongest servers.
Helping the Lady Trojans get their 11th win of the season was senior Lindsay Ganshorn with her 30 assists and three blocks, while sophomore Shana Anderson had 13 kills and two blocks.
Both teams are back on the court Thursday for regular-season finales, as Triton travels to Plymouth and Wawasee hosts Northridge.
