ELKHART - The Elkhart Memorial volleyball team showed why it's the second-ranked team in Class 4A Thursday.
Trailing 22-12 in the opening game against the visiting Warsaw Lady Tigers (5-2, 0-1 Northern Lakes Conference), the Lady Crimson Chargers (7-0, 1-0 NLC) rattled off 11-straight points en rout to a 26-24 win and the eventual three-game conference victory, 26-24, 25-20, 25-20."We were telling the girls, 'You need to get some momentum and start getting the tone of the game the way we like it to go into set two,'" Memorial coach Jacquie Rost said about her mindset in the opening game. "I was kind of thinking, 'This is a wash. We're going to forget about this one.'"
Instead, Rost received a big boost from junior Kayla Pawling, who served 10-straight points in the opening game.
"She's a lefty and she has a nice jump-float," Rost said of Pawling, who ended the match with six aces. "She had a lot of movement on the ball tonight, which can be tough."
The Lady Tigers definitely found it tough to handle, struggling to get the serves passed into offensive sets.
"As soon as our passers missed one or two, it just snowballed, which it does in volleyball sometimes," Warsaw coach Mike Howard said. "We have to be smarter."
Despite having a decisive advantage in Game 1, Howard said his team was well aware of Memorial's comeback ability. In last season's Goshen Sectional, Memorial displayed that knack by coming back to win its match against Warsaw after losing the first two games.
"We knew they were going to battle all the way through, because we've seen them do that before," Howard said. "I don't know if that's in the back of our minds, so we tightened up a little bit. You'd like to see us just push the accelerator and put them away. That could be the difference in the match, and probably is the difference in the match."
After winning the first game, Memorial never trailed over the course of the next two, with Warsaw tying the score just three times.
Making it hard for Warsaw to overcome Memorial was the Lady Crimson Chargers' attack, led by junior Jordan Dillman's nine kills, and followed by senior Lisa Parson's five, and four each from senior Allie Sailor and junior Cassidy Parsons.
With all the attacking, Howard is still trying to get his passers to gain more experience with each match.
"We have a number of girls back, but our ball-handling girls are gone," Howard said. "We lost Kate Reichard and Corinne Coon. We passed with two people last year, and they touched and passed most of the balls last year."
One experienced girl for Howard is senior setter Madison Long, who finished with a match-high 27 assists, while senior Emily Umbaugh led the team with nine kills, junior Sarah Johnson had seven digs and senior Natalie Decker blocked four shots.
With this match in the books, both teams will now look to the sectional, where the two may meet again.
"Win or lose, we come out of this knowing what we need to do in order to beat them when it really, really counts," Rost said.
After watching his team commit a number of miscues, Howard is hoping it will look a little better if the two do meet again down the line.
"Hopefully our ball handling's better, hopefully our serving's better and that helps our defense and our block," he said. "You know what you're going to get from (Memorial). They're going to be more polished. They're going to serve, they're going to pass and they're going to play defense. If we can get better in those three aspects, I think we can do some things offensively against them."
Warsaw hosts the Whitko Wildcats Tuesday.
ELKHART MEMORIAL DEF. WARSAW 26-24, 25-20, 25-20
Kills - Jordan Dillman (M) 9, Emily Umbaugh (W) 9, Lisa Parsons (M) 5, Allie Sailor (M) 4, Cassidy Parsons (M) 5; Aces - Kayla Pawling (M) 6, Melinda Troyer (M) 2, Sailor (M) 2; Digs - Sailor (M) 8, Troyer (M) 7, Sarah Johnson (W) 7, Pawling (M) 5, Natalie Decker (W) 5, Alex Sanchez (W) 5; Blocks - L. Parsons (M) 4, C. Parsons (M) 4, Decker (W) 4; Assists - Madison Long (W) 27, Brianna Moore (M) 25; Records: Memorial 7-0 (1-0 NLC), Warsaw 5-2 (0-1 NLC)
