AKRON — The Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley volleyball teams each have new head coaches, and only one was able to win the season opener with their new team Tuesday. As it was, Wawasee's new head coach Jeff Phillips was on the right side of a three-game sweep, as his team beat Abby Turner's Lady Vikings 25-18, 26-24, 25-20. Although the win will go on his record, Jeff Phillips does have his wife Jen Phillips as an assistant coach as well. Prior to serving as an assistant, Jen Phillips served as a head coach at Valley, coaching the Lady Vikings to a school-record 24-3 mark in 2009. Over the past two years, the two Phillipses have been assistant coaches at Warsaw, which Jeff believes has given him and his wife a good perspective in their newest roles. "It's helped that we've been able to work in a couple different programs in different capacities," he said. "She was a head coach at Valley, then we were both assistants at Warsaw. Now, I'm the head coach at Wawasee, so there's a lot of different perspectives we're getting — from Valley and from Warsaw. Now at Wawasee, we can come up with a philosophy that we can believe in and that we've pieced together from success at different places." Taking over a program that has struggled the past few years, Phillips already seems to have turned a small corner, as the Lady Warriors overcame a 19-6 deficit in the second game to win 26-24, grabbing a 2-0 match lead. "It's a change of mindset," Phillips said. "Maybe before, it may have been 'give up' and maybe lose that game 25-7 or 25-8. It's that one point at a time (mindset), and we're going to have to do that against a lot of teams this year. Our expectation is to win, and that's a change. "A comeback from 19 to any single digit is a confidence builder," he added. "Yeah, you'd rather win easily with no problems, but to win 26-24 with a comeback like that can only give us confidence to know it doesn't matter what's on the scoreboard. Until someone has 25, or 26 points, you can still win." While the comeback was a confidence builder for the Lady Warriors, it was more of a demoralizer for the Lady Vikings and their first-year head coach. "I feel like the girls were waiting back on their heels and not pushing it up, running our offense," Turner said. "We were just playing not to lose instead of playing to win." Following the second game collapse, Valley still seemed shell-shocked in the third game, falling behind 20-10 before succumbing 25-20. With only two seniors on the team, and one of those seniors playing her first year of volleyball, Turner can fall on youth for mental let-ups, but she's not prepared to do that. "We're definitely a young, inexperienced team, but I don't want them to use that as an excuse," she said. "They're all great players. We just need to figure out a way to get it out of them." One of those young players was freshman Caylie Teel, who led the Lady Vikings with seven kills and two aces, while also posting nine digs and two blocks in her first high school match. "It will be nice in the years to come to have players returning," Turner said. "We have a big sophomore class, so I'm excited for what the future has to offer." Phillips also has some young talent, led by sophomore Lydia Katsaropoulos, who had a match-high 10 kills. "We also played a freshman (Alli Ousley) all the way through too, so the future is bright for Wawasee volleyball," Phillips said. "We also have five seniors that are going to contribute this year. So we have a nice mix of underclassmen and seniors." That mixture showed in the stat sheet, as senior Sydney Miller led the way with three blocks, senior Megan Conley had 21 assists and junior Anne Beer had 12 digs. Miller, Beer and Katsaropoulos all shared the team lead in aces with two each. Outside of Teel's statistics for the home team, the Lady Vikings were led by sophomore Sara Alexander's four blocks, senior Megan Bibler's 18 digs and sophomore Kelsey Eckert's seven assists. Both teams return to action Thursday, as the Lady Warriors host Fairfield and Valley welcomes West Noble.
WAWASEE DEF. TIPPECANOE VALLEY 25-18, 26-24, 25-20 Kills — Lydia Katsaropoulos (W) 10, Caylie Teel (TV) 7, Anne Beer (W) 5, Megan Bibler (TV) 5, Megan Conley (W) 3, Sara Alexander (TV) 3; Assists — Conley (W) 21, Kelsey Eckert (TV) 7, Tenaya Shull (TV) 3; Aces - Gabi Routson (W) 3, LeeAnn McGuire (W) 3, Teel (TV) 2; Digs - Bibler (TV) 18, Routson (W) 15, Beer (W) 12, Alli Ousley (W) 11, Teel (TV) 9, Staci Groom (TV) 8; Blocks - Alexander (TV) 4, Sydney Miller (W) 3, Kelsey Ball (TV) 2, Teel (TV) 2; Records — Wawasee 1-0, Valley 0-1 JV — Wawasee def. Tippy Valley 25-21, 25-21 Wawasee JV Stats: Digs — Hunter Gaerte 11, Aly Anderson 7; Kills — Kaitlin Gaines 4, Taylor Spangle 4; Assists — Madi Anderson 11; Record — 1-0
