Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
MIDDLEBURY – Boasting a four-year streak as sectional champions, the Warsaw volleyball team faced a unique challenge on Saturday night when they took on Elkhart in the 4A Sectional 4 championship game. The Lady Lions had swept the Lady Tigers in the regular season, and there was not only a trophy on the line, but a chance for revenge. The NLC champions were able to get their hands on both, coming up with a 3-0 sweep for a fifth straight sectional title.
“We have senior leadership and a legacy and a program that has been passed down. There’s a standard that’s been set and these girls want to pass it down to the next group,” Warsaw head coach Chandra Hepler said. “It’s important to these girls to do what the girls before them did because of what this program means to them and how far it's come.”
Momentum was easy to come by but hard to keep as both teams began the game trying to get into a rhythm. Elkhart started fast before Warsaw quickly countered. The Lady Tigers went on to grow their own lead to three before the Lady Lions answered back with three straight of their own. With the winner of this match being the only team to keep practicing on Monday, it was no surprise things were so neck-and-neck.
Eventually, it was Warsaw that ended up being the side to pull away a bit during the middle stages of the match. After going up 15-10 and with the offense really starting to cook, the visitors on the scoreboard let out a roar as their opponent called timeout to try and stop the bleeding. Reagan Edwards and Harper Setser were both doing a great job attacking at the front line, and it was reflecting on the scoreboard as the orange and black jumped out to their largest lead thus far.
Elkhart did not go away quietly. In fact, the Lady Lions were able to go on a run of their own and ended up tying the game twice before Warsaw made it to 20 points. That looked to set up a dramatic finish, but with the visitors leading 21-20, another kill for Setser followed by an ace from Alayna Lantz made it a three-point game, forcing another timeout and putting the Lady Tigers on the verge of taking the opener. Their opposition gave them a bit of a scare but they held on to a 25-22 victory to take the first set of the match, as well as their first set in four tries against Elkhart this year.
“We knew that they were going to be more tired than we were coming into this match, so it was important for us to kind of take advantage of that on the front end and get out to a fast start," Hepler said.
A 5-1 start for the NLC champions to begin the second set was an early tone setter, as Warsaw was doing everything it needed to do to preserve that lead. The aggressive serving the team loves to integrate was on full display, as were the rotations of the powerful attackers up front, as the visitors were constantly creating new angles to find ways to get their kills to smash the court.
An early timeout call by the Lady Lions did nothing to stop the run the Lady Tigers were on, as not long afterwards, the lead had grown to double digits at 17-7. Once it got to that point though, the severity of the situation appeared to register to the home side. Looking to avoid an 0-2 hole, Elkhart began attacking with purpose, and it turned into points stacking on top of each other. Now leading by just five, it was Warsaw looking to cool their foes off.
As was the case earlier, the break was not enough to slow down the surging Lady Lions, who were able to tie the game at 19 all before taking the lead a point later on what was a 12-1 run. A stunned Warsaw side took another breather and composed itself. Not looking to give one away, the battle-tested Lady Tigers showed their stripes down the stretch by jumping back in front and staying there. An ace from Sophia Rios put her team a point away, right before another kill by Setser sealed the deal as Warsaw took a thriller of a set 25-23.
“These girls have done a great job of trusting the process. That’s why we play the games that we do in the regular season. We test ourselves against these teams all year long to remind us of how far we want to go but to also prepare ourselves for moments like this,” Hepler said.
Warsaw junior Madison Branam reaches out to keep the volley going during the second set...Nieter
The beginning of the third set resembled the start of the first in that it was incredibly back and forth. With one team looking to punch their ticket to next week’s regional and the other just looking to stay alive one set at a time, the intensity was at a boiling point, and the play on the floor reflected it. Each point was becoming longer, and players were throwing their bodies all over the court to keep the ball in the air. After 20 points of play, Elkhart led 11-9.
It stayed that close as the 25-point threshold grew nearer and nearer. Aside from a couple of ties, the Lady Lions were able to remain in front for a majority of the set. That was until the Lady Tigers finally jumped in front at 17-16, but that was just the first of three lead changes the match would see over the next couple of minutes. With the set and match hanging in the balance, it was Warsaw that once again took control late, going up 20-18 and forcing an Elkhart timeout.
Two more points by the visitors made it a four-point game and put the orange and black just three points away from a five-peat. They wasted little time picking those up after play resumed. Down the stretch in each of the three sets, the poise of the Lady Tigers was the difference, as they made the runs when they needed to, and Setser’s eleventh kill of the night was the final dagger in a 25-18 win that capped off a sweep and a sectional title.
Warsaw (21-11) will take on Crown Point at regionals on Saturday at Culver Community High School. The two teams met once earlier this season, with the Lady Tigers picking up a 2-0 sweep at a tournament on September 12.
