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After beginning the season this past Saturday with a round robin against perennial powers Hamilton Southeastern and McCutcheon, the Warsaw volleyball team set its sights on the Tiger Den on Tuesday night for the team’s first home game of the season. After coming up empty over the weekend, the Lady Tigers picked up their first victory of the year with a 3-1 win over Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran.
“This is a team that has a lot of inexperience, so when you can play in those big games and take them to five sets, it grows your confidence and kind of shows me who I can depend on in those moments,” head coach Chandra Hepler said. “We win games like we did tonight because of those tough games that we play over the course of the season.”
The Lady Tiger attack began the game on point, with sophomore Harper Setser doing a big chunk of the early damage up front. She was aided by junior Reagan Edwards, who was holding her own on the back line by picking up ace after ace. After the contest started at 2-2, the home side rattled off seven straight points to hop into the driver’s seat.
Warsaw was able to use that early spurt to coast for a good chunk of the set, but eventually, the Lady Cadets were able to go on a run of their own to tie things up at 14 all. Momentum had completely shifted, and just about everything that had been working for the Lady Tigers up to that point had come to a screeching halt.
With things now significantly tighter and the set approaching its conclusion, Warsaw was the team that dug deeper into the tank and was able to finish strongly. Edwards, now doing her damage at the front lines, was swallowing up everything that came near her and was stacking up points with both blocks and kills. Sophomore Erika Shimasaki was just as lethal from the service line, picking up a few aces down the stretch that were crucial to the home side taking the first set 25-17.
Those service aces were a factor all game long, as the Lady Tigers totalled 17 of them. Combined with the round robin from over the weekend, the team already has 45 after just three games.
“The more aggressive you are serving, the more you’re able to take their middles out of system and it makes it much easier for our blockers and our defense to predict where they need to be,” Hepler said.
The second set of the game remained closer for much longer, as Concordia responded well to dropping the opener. Edwards continued to have her way offensively, but the visitors were doing a much better job of containing Warsaw’s other offensive pieces. After 20 points, the home side held a slim 11-9 advantage.
But, for the second straight set, it was the orange and black that found a second wind. Putting together another back-breaking run towards the end of game, the Lady Tigers found a good amount of breathing room by scoring seven of the next ten points to inch closer to a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
The home team only continued to get stronger down the stretch, shaking off all resistance the Lady Cadets tried to throw at them as they captured the second set 25-18 on a kill by freshman Anna Senoish after surviving one final push from the visitors.
Warsaw senior Olivia Rooney dives for a dig while fellow classmate Alayna Lantz and head coach Chandra Hepler look on...Nieter
Now facing a sweep, Concordia began the third set by throwing everything they had at their opponent. With the visitors taking a three-point lead in the opening stages of the game, Hepler called a quick timeout to try and stop the bleeding.
It took a few points following the break for the orange and black to really get going, but they would eventually come along. Back-to-back aces by senior Alayna Lantz put the Lady Tigers in front for the first time in the set. The Lady Cadets continued to battle and kept the margin close for a moment, but Warsaw continued to wear their foe down and forced a timeout leading 15-11.
Now, it was the visitors’ turn to use a stoppage to their advantage, and they did just that. Concordia came out of the timeout on a 6-1 run to retake the lead.
Honored pregame for reaching 1,000 career assists, Maddie Branam used a nifty kill to give the Lady Tigers the lead back at 19-18. The Lady Cadets continued to fight though, and the lead would change hands yet again. That was the final time it did so, as the visitors were able to force a fourth set with a 25-22 win.
“I did think there was a chance to win it in three but that’s just a part of the growing pains,” Hepler said. “At the end of these games, it's easy to tense up, and I think we did a little of that tonight. But we were also able to tap back on our experience from over the weekend and overcome it, and I was really happy to see that.”
Concordia had grabbed a hold of the match’s momentum and was fully rolling with it, keeping stride for stride with the home side as the fourth set got underway. Around the same point as in the previous set, Warsaw was able to string some points together, largely due to the defense at the front line, to take a five-point lead.
This time, it looked as if the Lady Tigers were going to maintain that edge instead of letting their opponents back into it, holding a 17-11 edge late. However, the Lady Cadets were able to manage three straight to cut the deficit in half and force a timeout. However, that appeared to be the last gasp they had, and Warsaw was able to cruise the rest of the way to a 25-17 win to finish things off. Leading the charge offensively were Edwards and Stenoish, who improved immensely as the game wore on.
Warsaw (1-2) is at Leo on Wednesday.
