Warsaw Spikers Win Sectional OpenerELKHART – Warsaw Community High School freshman Cora West broke her dad's heart and gave him reason to smile at the same time Thursday night.
In a 3-1 win over the Goshen RedHawks in the opener of the Class 4A volleyball sectional at Elkhart Memorial High School, West tallied 11 kills and seven digs as the Lady Tigers improved to 27-7 with a 25-13, 25-27, 25-19, 25-14 victory.
Doug West the father had to be excited for his daughter.
Doug West the assistant coach for the Goshen RedHawks had to be disappointed to see the season end.
“You're torn with emotions both ways," said Goshen head coach Mike Howard, who like West is a former head coach at Warsaw, and whose daughter Haley Howard plays for Goshen.
“You want your daughter to do well. Cora is a great kid ... she plays travel ball for us. You wanna see her perform and be successful, but on the other hand you've got a job to do and you want to beat them. It takes a tiny bit of the sting out of losing when you know they're good kids on the other side of the net, but as a competitor you're disappointed when you lose.”
The Lady Tigers, who also beat Goshen 3-1 in Northern Lakes Conference play on Aug. 30, advanced to Saturday's 11 a.m. semifinal against Elkhart Memorial (17-17).
Northridge (8-23) beat Elkhart Central in a five-game thriller Thursday and will play Concord (4-26) in Saturday’s other semifinal.
The championship is slated for 7 p.m.
“It'll be exciting ... we know Memorial is a strong team,” said Warsaw coach Rick Ashmore, whose squad beat Memorial 3-0 on Aug. 29.
“We played them earlier in this gym, and they've progressed nicely. I saw them a little bit in the LaPorte Tournament, they're playing stronger, and we're gonna have to come ready to play.”
Warsaw led Goshen 15-11 in the first game Thursday before closing the opening set with a 10-2 run.
The second game was a thriller that featured 15 ties and nine lead changes before Goshen evened the match with a 27-25 win.
“We just played cleaner, served better,” Howard said of his team's performance in the second game. “We played cleaner at the net. We had less unforced errors, communication errors.”
The Lady Tigers built a 12-5 lead in the third game and were able to maintain a cushion throughout.
In the fourth game, Warsaw held a 9-7 advantage but pushed it to 23-11, ultimately ending Goshen’s season.
“It came down to errors,” said Howard, whose team finished the season with a 23-10 record. “They were aggressive at the service line, and that got us in trouble. They went on runs at important times and we had trouble maintaining consistency in our play."
Senior Kacy Bragg tallied 40 assists, eight blocks, two kills and two aces for the Lady Tigers, while sophomore Kennedy Lauck added 11 kills and seven blocks.
Sophomore Betty Barnett had nine kills and a pair of digs, senior Katie Swanson added eight kills and five aces, and sophomore Elizabeth Schmidt chipped in with 11 digs.
Brynn Shoup-Hill had 16 kills for the RedHawks, and fellow sophomore Megan Gallagher finished with 35 assists.
Though the two wins over Goshen this season were by the same 3-1 score, Ashmore said there were differences.
“We changed things a little bit,” said Ashmore. “Last time, Erin (Peugh) was our outside hitter, but she banged her foot up in the Penn game. I went with Cora, I thought she was doing a little better job.”
Playing in her first postseason match, West delivered. It probably made for an interesting conversation at home.
“She’s a smart player,” Ashmore said of West. “It was all week long, we had a battle to see who our other left would be. Allison Heinrich was a real close call. It was a gut feeling that I went with Cora, although I have a lot of confidence in Allison.”
