AKRON - In a season-opening match between evenly-talented volleyball teams, the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings got the best of the Wawasee Warriors Tuesday.
Competing in a chilly Valley gymnasium, the home team took a four-game victory, getting first-year head coach Emily Finken's coaching career off on a good note."It feels wonderful," Finken said about win No. 1. "I'm not going to lie. We still have a lot of things to work on, but I'm guessing they were nervous all day."
That nervousness may have worn off a bit with 25-19 opening-game win, but may have returned when Wawasee responded with a 25-17 victory of their own.
Tied at 1-1, the two squads were even over the next two games, with Valley nipping Wawasee by a score of 25-23 in the final two games.
"No excuses here, but we haven't played together since Friday morning," Wawasee coach Amy Miller said. "Yesterday, we had no power at school, so we had to cancel all of our practices. I was worried about coming into this first match of the year, not being warmed up and not having run through stuff in four, five days."
"I saw some real good stuff, but then I saw some real dumb stuff," she added. "It happens. For the first game, I'm not upset."
Some of the good stuff was senior Ali Herdrich posting 14 kills and 22 digs, while senior Terra Weisser also played a consistent match, recording 13 kills.
Then, some of the dumb stuff may have been girls running into each other, which happened three times between the same two girls on serve-receives.
According to Finken, communication was also a problem for her squad, they were just able to overcome it.
"Communication is the biggest thing," she said. "We have a lot of newcomers, so they're still trying to work together."
"I expect the girls to get down on the floor at every opportunity," Finken added. "We're working on quickness and keeping balls up. We also need to work on finishing, and getting the big hits. We'll improve on that."
Getting the hits in their season-opener were junior Chelsea Hoffman and senior Hannah Boggs, who had 11 and nine kills, respectively.
"Hannah Boggs did real well, especially considering her height," Finken said. "We're working with her to find open holes and hit those holes. Chelsea also stepped up with some big hits."
Valley and Wawasee are back in action Thursday, with Wawasee hosting Fairfield at 5:30 p.m. and Valley hosting Central Noble at 6 p.m.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY DEF. WAWASEE 25-19, 17-25, 25-23, 25-23
