Valley Serves Up Win Over Wawasee In Volleyball Opener
Valley Serves Up Win Over Wawasee In Volleyball Opener
Posted
Mark Howe-mhowe@timesuniononline.com
Valley Serves Up Win Over Wawasee In Volleyball OpenerAKRON – After Wawasee came from behind to take the first set from Tippecanoe Valley, the Lady Vikings dominated the middle two sets before holding off the Lady Warriors in the fourth and taking a 23-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-23 win in the opening volleyball match for both teams Tuesday night.
Junior Shayleigh Shriver led the way for Valley with six aces, and the Lady Vikings had 19 aces in the match. Head coach Mallory Eaton said the service game is a point of emphasis for her team to help make up for shortcomings they can do nothing about.
“We don’t have a lot of size, and we never really have,” Eaton said. “I grew up on serve and pass, so we constantly work on the serve and pass game. I think at all levels that’s what wins. Where we don’t have the height advantage we can earn it back with ball control and with serving a nice, heavy ball to get them out of system.”
“Shay, last year, she was number three in all of 3A with her aces and her points. We’re pretty blessed that we have good servers, but I push aggressive serving. I’m OK to give some errors; the only way you’re going to get points is to really earn them. So we had a few balls even go longer than the court, but I’m OK with that because I think the first attack is the serve.”
On the other end of the floor Wawasee struggled mightly not only receiving serves, but taking advantage of its serving opportunities. The Lady Warriors had just 11 points off their serves in the middle two games.
“Serving was a little bit of an issue for us, but in this match serve receive was an even bigger one,” Lady Warrior coach Kayla Riportella said. “We weren’t really taking advantage of our possession of the ball, and it kind of bit us in the backside.
“I think girls got (negative thoughts) in their heads a little too much, and froze mentally instead of reacting and playing the serve receive they know how to play.”
Wawasee (0-1) hosts Fairfield on Thursday. Valley (1-0) will host West Noble on Thursday.
