SYRACUSE – Numbers never lie? Not so much.

What was an outstanding night in the stat book turned out to be a disappointment on the scoreboard for the Wawasee volleyball team. The Lady Warriors managed to win just one set in a match against Goshen losing 23-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21 Thursday night in Syracuse.

It just was not meant to be for Wawasee tonight. Lady Warrior head coach Jeff Phillips explained the difference between what the stats said and what he saw on the court, “Overall the stats look positive for four sets. But the plays that don’t show up on the stats were not positive.”

Wawasee missed several serves in the first game while trying to play catch-up with Goshen. The rest of the night was littered with mental mistakes and poor intangibles for the Lady Warriors.

“We would miss a clutch serve here and there and that really hurts our offense when we miss any serve but even more so when it is in a clutch situation. In the whole grand scheme of the stats, those plays do not show up and those are what hurt us the most tonight,” Phillips added.

Wawasee managed to hold it together and grind out a win in the third set but it was nearly a sweep for the Redskins. Ironically it was clutch serving that bailed the Lady Warriors out in the third set. The Warriors rattled off three straight points led by the serves of Ashley Beer to tie the game at 19. The momentum shift interrupted a Goshen run and ultimately led Wawasee to a win in the set. Unfortunately for the Lady Warriors, the momentum could not carry over to another win on the night.

Goshen’s head coach Kelsey West was choked up after the game, knowing how big this win was for her team, “This is just such a big win. We just changed out lineup yesterday and we have been down a lot lately. This is just our second win, but it’s a big one. It was an all-around great night from all of our girls. They’ve been at the bottom of the conference for a long time. Everybody did what they had to do for us to win tonight and it is just huge.”

Goshen (2-11, 1-1) will move on from this dog fight to a family feud as West will take on her mother’s team in regional power Fairfield on Tuesday night at Fairfield High School.

Wawasee (9-3, 0-2) will travel to Bourbon for the Triton Tournament with its first match starting at 8:30 a.m.

Things were not as rough for the Lady Warrior junior varsity squad. Wawasee’s JV swept Goshen’s JV 25-24, 25-19. Tia Long had six digs and led the Wawasee JV team with two blocks and 11 assists.