The Warsaw volleyball team was able to put a sufficient scare into Class 4A No. 2 Elkhart Memorial Tuesday, but in the end, the Crimson Chargers' kept their Northern Lakes Conference win streak in tact. After dropping the first two games of the match (25-14, 30-28), Warsaw responded by winning the third (25-18) and fourth (29-27), but fell 15-5 in the decisive fifth. "As the pressure builds, decision-making becomes questionable, so you become timid at the net," Warsaw coach Mike Howard said about the fifth-game letdown. "People start second-guessing their abilities. Rather than just relaxing and playing, everything just tightens up for a volleyball player." The win extended Memorial's NLC win streak to 70 games, dating back to a loss to Warsaw in their first-ever match in NLC play back in 2001. "They gave us about all we could handle tonight," Memorial coach Jacquie Rost said. "We really had to make some significant changes, defensively, to stop their outside hitters. It paid off. It wasn't something we had worked on, but we made some switches and it worked." And for a team playing for its 10th-straight NLC title, as well as keeping that winning streak in tact, the pressure can mount. Because of that, Rost had a simple message for her girls going into the fifth game. "We've won a lot in the conference, and they don't want to be the team that doesn't (keep the streak going)," Rost said. "I think there's something to be said for that. In the third and fourth, they were a little panicked, playing not to lose. Before the fifth set, we told them, 'If you lose, you can still get your goal of getting to state. Let's just play to win.' I don't know if releasing that pressure of winning conference worked for them or if they just turned it up a notch." Like Memorial, Warsaw has a lot of junior and seniors who are seeing their first significant playing time on varsity. But unlike Memorial, Warsaw hasn't had that success to fall back on. "We're in a very similar spot as we were when I first came here (in 2008)," Howard said. "We have good players playing new roles for the first time, and it took us a year for those girls to learn how to win. I think we're there. We're capable of playing really good volleyball. We just haven't figured out how to finish yet." If they had figured out how to finish, the Lady Tigers would have probably notched a huge win. After dropping the first game, due mostly to an 11-0 Memorial run, Warsaw held an 18-9 lead in the second game, but then again, they were facing an explosive team. Down by nine, Memorial began chipping away, tying the game at 24-24. The two teams exchanged blows down the stretch, but Memorial proved to have a more powerful punch, winning the game 30-28 and taking a 2-0 match lead. Instead of succumbing to the Chargers, Warsaw responded in the third game, getting a relatively easy 25-18 before embarking on another battle in the fourth. In Game 4, Warsaw jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and also led 16-10, before things started to turn once again. Leading by six, Warsaw began to relive the second game, as Memorial once again made a run, tying the game at 22-22 and even took the lead at 24-23. Trailing for the first time in the game, Warsaw senior Jamie Lacheta took over, scoring Warsaw's next four points on kills and an ace, helping to force the fifth game. In all, Lacheta recorded a match-high 19 kills and seven aces to go with three blocks. "Jamie was huge for us tonight," Howard said. "They could not handle Jamie out there. We needed to get her the ball more, to be honest. We needed to get her the ball in situations where she could score. Some of that is on our ball-handling, while some of it is us putting her in the right situation." Following the emotional fourth game win, Warsaw was flat in fifth, getting ran over 15-5, helping a relatively-inexperienced Memorial team gain some confidence. "This was definitely a character-building match," Rost said. "We told the girls, 'We earned that and we have to learn from that.' Because we'll see them again (at sectional). We have to learn from this and make adjustments." In the victory, Memorial was led by senior Jordan Dillman's 17 kills and 19 digs, while senior Cassidy Parsons finished with 14 and senior Kylie Giger posted 12. Also for Memorial, junior Paige Newvine had 46 assists and five aces. Outside of Lacheta's production, senior Katie Voelz led the Lady Tigers with four blocks, while junior Alex Sanchez posted 22 digs and junior Chloe Hubner closed the match with 35 assists. "They came in to play hard and kudos to them," Rost said about Warsaw. "I thought they played a great match." Warsaw travels to Whitko Tuesday.
