Viking Volleyball Downs Wawasee In 4 SetsAKRON – When coaches from both teams are happy with the performance of their squads, especially early in the year, it’s a sign of a well-played match.
Such was the case Monday night when Tippecanoe Valley earned a tightly-contested win, 25-23, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21 over visiting Wawasee in non-conference volleyball on the newly christened Rita Price Simpson Court.
For Valley, it was the first official match of the season, and head coach Mallory Eaton was excited to see strong play for this time of year from her team.
“We have a young team; we have three kids who were full time (junior varsity) last year; they came up, played big minutes and they were solid,” she said. “When you graduate nine kids, you sit and wonder ‘what is this going to be like?’ The team chemistry and their level of communication and how they get along is much improved. I think they’re starting to trust each other a little more, and our seniors led, bringing a lot of positivity.
“There were moments where everything was clicking. The fist game is always hard; the kids are always nervous with the fans in the stands and parents and boyfriends. But I thought they handled it really well. And when we did get in a rut, I thought we really responded very well.
“We don’t have as much depth, so fatigue does play a role. We’re learning to manage our energy so we’re low-error. We have three matches this weel, so that’ll be a continual thing we have to battle.”
Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips said that his team showed considerable improvement from Saturday’s win, in spite of coming up short Monday.
“To win the Bremen match was good, but tonight was much better volleyball,” Phillips said. “So even though we lost, it was a much better test to see where we are at the beginning of the season.
“Obviously they’re a sectional opponent, and somebody we’ve played a ton of times before. But now we know where we’re at, where we need to improve, and there are some things that we can fix between now and Monday.
Liz Kleopfer led the Warriors with six kills, but Wawasee had a lot of balance with Emma Dippon, Dylan Konieczny and Leslie Vazquez had five kills each. Kia Jamira had 17 assists and Kleopfer added 11 more assists. Madi Simmons had 11 digs and six aces, and Molly Jones had three blocks.
Statistics were not available for Tippecanoe Valley as of press time.
Phillips said he felt both teams have a lot to look forward to this season.
“It was a really good early-season match between two even teams,” said Phillips. “It will be really interesting to see how each team looks come tournament time.”
The Vikings play the second of three straight days today, traveling to Plymouth for a non-conference match. Wawasee will host Lakeland High School at the Hardwood Tepee Monday.
