Elkhart Memorial’s Darrian Mowery hammers home a kill between the block attempt of Warsaw’s Caroline Mayer (13) and Lexie Day (10) Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WARSAW – If only these two teams could play each other every night. Another rousing rendition of the Warsaw-Elkhart Memorial volleyball matchup went to Memorial after the visitors took down Warsaw 25-23, 18-25, 25-18, 25-22 Tuesday night at the Tiger Den.

Warsaw’s Peyton Adamiec dives for a ball.

The two teams, which saw each other just three days ago at the Mishawaka Invitational in pool play, renewed pleasantries in the Northern Lakes Conference opener for both clubs and again put on a show.

Warsaw made the match much more close than Saturday’s dominant Memorial performance, but the Chargers still had the juice to close out when it needed to.

After Memorial held on for the two-point win in game one, Warsaw would take back a game with a dose of Memorial’s medicine. Haley Peterson would record consecutive aces, countered with a three service errors from Memorial on the other end. Caroline Mayer added an ace and Warsaw knotted the scoreboard at one apiece.

Memorial jumped out to a 15-8 lead in game three, only for Warsaw to claw back within four at 19-15 and a total momentum shift in motion. A 5-2 run by Memorial, however, put the Chargers at game point, and closed out in style with a kill.

At 2-1, Warsaw were facing the same confident team that buried them just days prior.

“Efficiency,” started Warsaw head coach Mike Howard, “Just not being clean with the volleyball. Our serve receive and playing well at the net. There were opportunities on overpasses and free balls and we just didn’t handle the ball cleanly and gave them control of the point. We operated from a panic mode instead of a control mode. We wanted to take control, but then gave it right back to them and you can’t do that against Elkhart Memorial.”

All of the factors that helped Memorial to the 2-1 lead were in play in game four, and were becoming more evident of being critical keys. The net play of Darrian Mowery, who had 14 kills in the match, and the decision making of setter Krystal Grubb, who had 32 assists, helped Memorial to a 19-11 lead. Warsaw would climb back to 23-19, and a frantic point at 24-20 had Mayer kill home her 14th winner. But a slam by Autumn Taylor closed things out, and put Memorial back in the driver’s seat to reclaim that NLC title that currently resides in Tiger Town.

Memorial setter Krystal Grubb celebrates a point with her team.

“Our defense bailed us out, especially when our hitters are hitting it five feet out of bounds,” said Memorial head coach Jacquie Rost. “Our kill efficiency wasn’t good. We have typically been driven by our defense and that mentality of being blue collar. Get it done, dive on the floor, get the ball up and get it over. That saved us a lot tonight. Serve receive got a lot better, Warsaw served us a lot tougher. I’m glad to get the win. A little ugly, but we’ll take it.”

Cassie Hoag led Warsaw (8-4, 0-1 NLC) with 28 assists and Peyton Adamiec had 25 digs. Jordyn Lindeman added seven kills and two blocks while Lexie Day chipped in eight kills.

Warsaw, which started its season 7-0, heads back into NLC play Thursday against Goshen.

“It’s hard to say that we’re struggling because we lost to the defending state champ in Carmel, a top-10 Marian team and Memorial twice, who’s ranked,” Howard said. “We’ll see. We are going to be fine, and our level of play has been elevated. It’s just a matter of cleaning up some errors. You cannot play against that level of competition and make errors like we have made.”

The Warsaw JV defeated Memorial 25-15, 25-17. Erin Peugh paced Warsaw with five digs, four kills and two aces. Raina Armey had seven digs and two aces, Alicia Sikora had 10 assists and three kills, and Abby Serbousek had eight digs and an ace.

Haley Peterson of Warsaw serves it up to Elkhart Memorial Tuesday.