SYRACUSE – After putting up a tough fight in the opening game, the Wawasee volleyball team succumbed to the visiting Warsaw Lady Tigers Thursday. Outmanned, the Wawasee Lady Warriors (16-7, 1-4 Northern Lakes Conference) jumped out early on the Lady Tigers (14-3, 5-0 NLC), taking a 7-2 opening-game lead. But against the taller Warsaw squad, Wawasee went on to lose that game 25-23, followed by a 25-8 loss in Game 2 and 25-21 in the third. “If you play a good first game, like we did, and push them a little bit, (Warsaw coach Mike Howard is) going to make enough adjustments in Game 2 to come out and run some different offense,” Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips said. “They ran some things against us, that we may not have seen from anyone else. “They're a little bit more physical, a little bit taller, a little bigger than us,” he added. “We can't stick with that if they're running smooth and in full offense.” Phillips, and his wife/assistant coach Jen Phillips, served as assistants under Howard at Warsaw two years ago, so the Lady Tigers’ coach had some idea of what his team was going to face. “We know what (Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips and Jen Phillips) are trying to do here,” Howard said. “They're making really good strides and doing really good things. We knew they were going to play really good defense tonight. They probably didn't serve the ball as well as they would have hoped. I think that hurt them a little bit and helped us some.” His team’s service game was something Phillips was a little down on, as the Lady Warriors served the ball into the net six times and out-of-bounds twice. “The eight serves are probably the only disappointing part of our game tonight,” Phillips said. “We've talked about giving away points. With eight serves, it's 25-23 in the first game and 25-21 in Game 3, there's eight points right there. Now, does that mean we win those games? I don't know, but we definitely don't if we miss a serve.” For Warsaw, senior Jamie Lacheta has always been a strong attacker, but has added a strong service game this season. Against Wawasee, to go with her match-high 18 kills, Lacheta also had two aces, the same as teammate Chloe Hubner. “She's a little streaky, so she's either serving the ball well or it falters a little bit,” Howard said of Lacheta, who posted a school-record 19 aces against Whitko on Aug. 28. “We're at that point in the season where legs are starting to get a little bit more tired, shoulders are wearing out a little bit. It's a battle. So whenever you get easy points, and the service line is the best way to get those easy points, we want to take as many as we can get from her.” Along with a strong attack by Warsaw, as Katie Voelz posted 12 kills, Warsaw’s height also caused problems for the Lady Warriors. With top attacker junior Lydia Katsaropoulos donning a walking boot, Wawasee’s attack took a hit, with Voelz and senior Sam Jensen each getting three blocks for the Lady Tigers. “We're not going to get a ton of kills against anybody,” Phillips said about his squad, which was led by senior Kaitlin Goines’ six kills. “Nobody's going to come out and get 32 kills. At Warsaw, that happens all the time. Our goal is to spread the ball around and get as many kills as we can.” Next up for Wawasee is a trip to the Crown Point Invitational Saturday. “We don't know a whole lot of the teams, but those teams there don't know us,” Phillips said. Warsaw will host its own invitational Saturday, bringing in the likes of Muncie Burris, Bellmont and Lafayette Jefferson. The Lady Tigers will then host Fort Wayne Snider Tuesday, setting up a big NLC match Thursday against NorthWood. After handing Elkhart Memorial its first NLC loss in 76 matches earlier this season, the path for a conference title looked paved. However, NorthWood then defeated Memorial on Sept. 13, setting up a battle of 5-0 NLC squads Thursday in Warsaw. “If you want to win the NLC championship, there's no easy path,” Howard said. “NorthWood is very, very good. (NorthWood coach) Hillary (Rabber) has got a tremendous team up there. They have hitters in all five spots, they have a great setter, they handle the ball well. It's going to be a tough task, but I think we're up to it.”
