Warsaw’s Peyton Adamiec gets set to receive a serve from Wawasee during the Tigers 3-0 victory over the Warriors Thursday night. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – The Warsaw volleyball team continued its dominance Thursday night when it traveled to Wawasee. The Tigers entered undefeated in Northern Lakes Conference play and despite a valiant effort by the Warriors, Warsaw would run its conference mark to 5-0.

The difference for the Tigers was making plays late and Warsaw gained separation on the back end of every game, winning 25-17, 25-18 and 25-20.

“We handled the ball in serve receive well tonight,” said Warsaw head coach Mike Howard. “That’s where we can get ourselves into trouble, when we don’t communicate or don’t handle the ball in serve receive. Wawasee did some nice things tonight, they played great defense and served well.”

Solid defense did keep the Warriors hanging around all night. Wawasee played neck and neck with the Tigers to start all three games. The Warriors even took the lead in the second game, but could never create separation. One reason the defense was so stellar Thursday night was the performance of libero Aly Anderson. The senior was all over the court for Wawasee as she would end up with 27 digs. The all-out effort was more than appreciated by Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips.

“Aly Anderson was amazing tonight,” Phillips remarked. “She made plays tonight that most liberos would not. She made it to balls that most liberos just would not. The balls she hit she made playable and we were able to send those back to Warsaw in a way that couldn’t just be shoved back down our throats.

“When you have a person that plays middle back defense the way she does, a person that is in the top 10 in the state for digs, it’s big. She allows us to stay in games.”

Anderson highlighted the Warrior effort but making just as many plays on the other side of the net was Warsaw’s Katie Voelz. The Tiger senior was the stand-out stud that her team needed to get separation and get the win.

“To have a great team, you have to have a security blanker, that’s Katie (Voelz) for us,” said Howard. “We have a few kids we can lean on but we know we can count on Katie to come up big when the ball is in her hands.”

Voelz led the Tigers with 19 kills and added eight digs. Wawase had 19 kills as a team. Cassie Hoag had 29 assists and 12 digs. Peyton Adamiec led the Tigers with 23 digs. Jordyn Lindeman was solid in the front for Warsaw with five kills and a team-high five blocks.

Wawasee was led by Alli Ousley’s 16 assists and Seaquinn Bright’s six kills.

There were two things we could control and use to challenge Warsaw tonight and we were awesome at both,” Phillips stated. “We just didn’t put enough balls away to be able to take control of a game. You have to do that against a team that is as good as Warsaw.”

The Tigers are now 17-4 overall and 5-0 in NLC play. Wawasee falls to 12-10 on the season and 0-4 in the NLC.

Thursday’s contest was the annual “Pink Out” game for the squads. Festivities included a serving contest to start the night between a Wawasee faculty member and student. There was also a bake sale and two Warrior players also took pies to the face as part of another fundraiser. All proceed raised will go to support the Kosciusko County Cancer Care Fund.

In the junior varsity match Warsaw swept Wawasee 25-12, 25-13. Dayton Groninger and Hanna Leach each had six kills and Alexia Day five for Warsaw. Abby Serbousek had seven assists and Alicia Sikora five. Serbousek had four aces and Raina Armey three, while Armey had five digs and Jamie Grose two and Kenzie Welk a block for the JV Tigers, who improved to 14-2 overall and 3-2 in the NLC with the win.