Lady Tigers Fall In Battle Of Ranked TeamsA learning experience.
That's what Warsaw volleyball coach Rick Ashmore called Monday night's three-game loss to the visiting Penn Lady Kingsmen.
In a battle of teams ranked in the top 15 in the Class 4A poll, No. 13 Warsaw led early in each game, was close late, but faltered down the stretch as No. 7 Penn pulled out a 25-19, 25-17, 25-22 win at the Tiger Den.
The Lady Tigers fell to 12-3 as their five-match win streak ended, while Penn improved to 16-1 with its 14th straight win.
Warsaw's communication, said Ashmore, helped the Lady Tigers gain early leads in each match, and was strong as they battled in the latter stages, but it disappeared as Penn made their game-clinching runs.
“Our communication wasn't where it had been, that's what we were just talking about,” said Ashmore. “Our blocking left us, because we were selfishly not talking. That's something we have to overcome.
“It was a good early season non-conference game, I know that. I wish we could play them another night besides Monday ... we're not a good Monday night team.”
The Lady Tigers scored the first three points of the opening game and later led 13-10.
That's when Penn turned things around, scoring the next five points to take a 15-13 advantage.
After clinging to a 16-14 advantage, and a 21-19 lead moments later after Warsaw senior Kacy Bragg served up consecutive aces, Penn closed things out and took a 1-0 lead in the match.
In Game 2, Warsaw led 3-1, but quickly found itself down 9-4. The Lady Tigers rallied and got within two at 16-14, but Penn scored nine of the next 12 points to take a 2-0 match lead.
Game 3 was more of the same. Warsaw held an early lead, fell behind 18-9, but rallied to within two points of the Lady Kingsmen at 21-19 before Penn secured the sweep.
“Warsaw was solidly moving the ball around, and our defense decided to pick up some balls that they were sure had hit the ground,” said Penn coach Lisa Pawlik. “I thought we went into some aggressive serving late in the games, especially in Game 2. And then our transitional blocking really did a nice job, because there's nothing better than a nice solid block to end that point and go ‘Ok, that's ours.’”
Junior Isabella Phillips led Penn with seven kills, while juniors Molly Pooler and Ally Hickey had five each.
For Warsaw, senior Kacy Bragg tallied 21 assists, seven kills and three aces, while sophomore Kennedy Lauck added 11 blocks and eight kills.
Senior Erin Peugh and freshman Kylie Smith finished with eight digs each.
“It’s a team that if we’re lucky, we could possibly be facing them at the regional,” Ashmore said of Penn. “We had three freshman and two sophomores out there most of the time. It’s a learning experience ... we’ll take it as that, take steps forward and get ready to go.”
The Lady Tigers are in action again tonight when they host Columbia City.
Penn won Monday night’s JV match 23-25, 25-22, 15-11, and the won the freshman contest 17-25, 25-21, 15-9.
