COLUMBIA CITY - At Thursday's Class 3A Columbia City Sectional, two area volleyball teams fell, while one moved on to Saturday's semifinals.
In the night's first match, the NorthWood Panthers defeated the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings in four games, while the Whitko Wildcats upset the Wawasee Warriors in five games in the nightcap.Saturday, West Noble and Columbia City will meet at 11 a.m., followed by NorthWood and Whitko. The championship match will take place later in the day at 6 p.m.
Warriors Shocked By Wildcats
Back on Sept. 29, the Wawasee Warriors (19-15) had no problem with the Whitko Wildcats (9-20), posting a dominating 25-11, 25-14, 25-18 home win. Thursday at the Columbia City Sectional, the story was much different.
After claiming the first game 25-12, Wawasee went on to lose the next two 25-20, 25-16.
The Warriors bounced back to win the fourth 25-20 and appeared to be in control in the fifth, up 7-4. However, Whitko responded with five-straight points, taking a 9-7 lead, eventually winning the game, and the match, 15-9.
"It was just wonderful to see us play well at various points in the match, and play well enough to win," Whitko head coach Doug West said. "To close out that fifth game was good fundamentals and good composure."
Composure and fundamentals is exactly what Wawasee lacked in that fifth game.
With the score tied at 7-7, Whitko won the next two points after miscommunication on the Warriors side had the girls looking at each other instead of hitting the ball on two consecutive points in a row.
"There's not much I can do about that there," Wawasee head coach Amy Miller said.
Following the lopsided win in the opening game, the match appeared headed for a quick three-game ending, but Wawasee's play slipped, allowing Whitko to get some wins and some confidence in the process.
"I have to think a little of it was just the jitters of playing in a big match in the sectional," West said about his team's first-game performance. "'How good are we really?' Maybe we were a little bit timid, a little bit nervous."
Down a game, Whitko senior Courtney Carver put the team on her back in Game 2, posting eight of her match-high 16 kills, leading her team to a game win and tying the match.
On top of her 16 kills, Carver also finished with four aces, but West is quick to point out it's a team effort.
"We had a really great team performance," he said. "We talked all year about how were a team full of players that are good, solid players. We try not to focus on one or two individuals. We just say, 'Hey, as a team we all try to do our job and play well.' I think that happened tonight."
Along with Carver's performance, senior Sydney Reed and junior Rachelle Kessie each had five blocks, junior Stephanie Camden had 15 digs and senior Amber Blankenship finished with a team-high 25 assists.
The Wildcats will face another Northern Lakes Conference team Saturday at 12:30 p.m., taking on NorthWood, who defeated Tippecanoe Valley in Thursday's first match.
"NorthWood's a great team," West said. "We'll have to play great volleyball. We'll have to play one of our best matches of the season to beat them."
Whitko also had to play one of its best matches to beat Wawasee, which it did, ending the Warriors' season before they thought it would.
"We just didn't execute," Miller said. "I don't think (Whitko) earned a whole lot. We just made a lot of mistakes. (Whitko) played well. I don't want to take anything away from Whitko. They came back and gave it all they had. I wish them well, but we lost it."
Making things tough for the Warriors was a three-person bench, which was a result of playing without injured senior Terra Weisser.
"(Playing without) the No. 1 player returning from last year, as far as stats went, that's tough," Miller said.
After defeating the NorthWood Panthers 25-12 in Game 2 Thursday at the Columbia City Sectional, the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings had tied the match at a game a piece and looked to have hit their stride.
But then the wheels came off.
Trailing the third game 12-10, Valley completely lost control as NorthWood used 14-2 run to win the game 25-11 and went on to win the fourth 25-17.
"We were struggling mentally at the end of the season, and (tonight), I felt like we kind of mentally fell apart," Valley head coach Emily Finken said of the four game loss (25-20, 15-25, 25-11, 25-17). "It wasn't anything physical. They played their hearts out, and that's all I could asked for."
"They just did a better job of ball control than we did," Finken said about NorthWood. "They kept the ball off the ground."
Valley's biggest problem was NorthWood junior Kaci Heeter, who finished with 18 assists, 10 kills, five blocks and 27 digs. Junior Taylor Olson was also big for the Panthers, coming up with 17 kills, while junior Lauren Linhart had five blocks in the win.
"They kept coming at us," Finken said. "They didn't let up one bit. I felt like we were doing the same thing, and they were doing the controlling. I talked to the girls about controlling the match, controlling the tempo. (NorthWood) controlled it."
Finken was pleased with the effort of her girls, particularly junior Kaley Shewman.
"She has definitely improved over the course of the season, but we still have a lot of work to do with her," Finken said. "We want her to become consistent and the powerhouse on this team."
The loss closes Finken's first year of coaching at Valley, where she experienced some highs and some lows.
"It was a roller coaster," she said. "It was an emotional roller coaster for myself and the team. I grew just as much as they grew. We were in it together."
