Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MENTONE - Despite playing a school that was 21-0 heading into Wednesday evening's volleyball match with Fulton County Christian, Tippecanoe Valley may have been somewhat overconfident.
After all, the Vikings were on a school-record 7-match winning streak and had already won 13 games, three more than any Valley team in a single season. And Fulton County Christian does not necessarily play the type of competition that Valley sees in the Three Rivers Conference.
So when Valley took a 12-0 lead in the first game and won 15-3, it may have been the team's downfall. The Vikings got sloppy after that and lost the next two games and the match Wednesday 3-15, 15-7, 15-6.
In the first set, Rhonda Doud dished out six assists and Brandy Manns and Brooke Fisher each got three kills. Leading 6-0, Andria Parker put the game away with three aces in four service attempts and racked up six consecutive points to double the score before going on for the 15-3 victory.
At that point, Valley began to make unforced errors in the second and third sets. Trailing 2-1 in the second set, Fulton County Christian scored six straight points with four kills from Iranna Sibert to take a 7-2 lead.
Down 11-4, Valley tried to claw back into the match as Doud starting setting the ball to Andria Parker. The Doud-to-Parker combination worked on four consecutive attempts for a side out and three points to close to 11-7 before Fulton reasserted itself with a pair of kills from Sibert for a 15-7 win.
The third set started tight as Valley led 5-4, but once again, the Vikings began to lose control of the match by making hitting mistakes. From that point, Valley made eight unforced errors to hand the match to Fulton County Christian as Charity and Iranna Sibert found numerous holes in the Valley defense for the 15-6 clincher.
"We didn't play the way we have been lately," Valley coach Jon Parker said. "We've been on such a high roller coaster in winning some big conference matches that I probably didn't do a good job getting the girls up for the match. We've been playing well and controlling matches, but when it went the other way, we didn't fight back. I'm still happy with where the program is at and what the girls have done here."
Jon Parker felt that the match was good for his team because of the different style from any other team his Vikings have played. Without much height outside of Iranna Sibert, Fulton County Christian was content to sit back and dig everything Valley dished out and then just look for holes in the defense to push the ball toward.
"The type of volleyball they played, we haven't seen all year," Jon Parker said. "They did a nice job of finding the holes, tipping it over and putting the first shot back over. Wherever it's open, they did a nice job of going to that. So I give them a lot of credit for being 22-0. They get their serves over, they very seldom block up front, but they're always in the right place."
Andria Parker led the Vikings with 10 kills, two blocks and two aces. Brandy Manns added five blocks and five kills, while Brooke Fisher had seven kills. Doud added 22 assists.
Valley (13-11, 3-1) is still tied for first in the TRC. The Vikings will be out of conference today at Culver at 6 p.m. today. Then, Valley will be at the Northridge Tournament on Saturday before heading back into conference play against Rochester, Whitko and Southwood to try to win the conference title.
