Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
LIGONIER - Wawasee Warrior volleyball fans were given two reasons to be happy last night.
One, the Warriors beat Lakeland 15-11, 15-12 in the first round of the West Noble Sectional.
Two, Coach said the Warriors are hitting their stride now, right here in sectional play.
"I think we're playing the best ball we've played," first-year Warrior coach Jason Fleming said. "If I wanted to pick a time for us to peak, now would be the time to do it. We are playing incredible team offense and defense. We had a little trouble getting the team concept down at the beginning of the season.
"Now it's all clicking."
Fleming saw several things he liked. Wawasee beat the Lakers in the regular season and were able to beat them again. His Warriors jumped ahead 5-0 in the first game and never trailed. They jumped ahead 9-5 in the second game and trailed only once, 10-9. Kills by Kari Beer, Jaclyn Craver and Kaiyra McLaughlin righted the Warriors and helped give them a 13-10 lead.
The Warriors hit well, returning nearly everything hit to them, set well and blocked well.
"Our coverage was there," Fleming said. "Andrea Van Cleave played incredible defense, some of the best defense I've seen her play all season long. Lydia Carpenter and Kari Beer were hitting well. Kaiyra McLaughlin was blocking well. She had some key blocks on the quick set in the middle that I think helped turn the momentum our way. Kara Mathew and Kendra Damer again set a solid match."
But the biggest reason the Warriors won, Fleming said, was becaused they passed well.
"I think our key tonight was passing the ball, which activates our offense," Fleming said. "Our offense has always been there, but with the passing along with it - I don't want to sound cocky - I think we overpowered them. They had several really good swings, but we managed to get a block on almost everything they swung at.
"That was the difference. Our blocking and the power in our hitters and strong defense behind the block just made the difference tonight."
The Warriors had only one lull in the evening, when they traded side outs with Lakeland and went from leading 9-5 to trailing 11-10 in game two.
Lakeland had more than one communication breakdown, where girls huddled around an incoming ball, only to watch it drop. Other times, they hit the ball four times before they got it over the net, which is illegal.
Wawasee rarely had these breakdowns.
"We spent a lot of time on communication this last week," Fleming said. "It's really loud in here and is hard to hear on the court. We drilled commmunication."
Indeed, the Warriors also had to deal with some vocal Lakeland teens on the sidelines, but Fleming said that only motivated the Warriors.
"The hostile crowd makes it harder on the other team (Lakeland), because it intensifies everything my team wants to do," Fleming said. "They want to go out, put the ball away and shut the crowd up. As soon as they whipped the crowd, they whipped the team."
The Warriors (19-13) meet West Noble (20-12) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. East Noble (10-19) meets Prairie Heights (13-14) in the 11 a.m. game. The Warriors beat West Noble in the regular season. The championship will be played at 7:30 p.m.
"We have a pretty good view of their (West Noble's) defense and players we need to key on," Fleming said. "Using that, the practice time tomorrow and what we know from having played them, I feel confident we can set something up to play really good ball with them.
"Win or lose Saturday, I like the way the girls are playing now. This is phenomenal, the best I've seen all year."
