NorthWood’s bench reacts after scoring the final point of its 3-0 win at Wawasee, clinching its first outright NLC championship in 22 years. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – NorthWood wasn’t interested in just a piece of the pie. They took the entire thing.

NorthWood claimed an overwhelming 3-0 win over Wawasee Thursday night to finish 7-0 in the Northern Lakes Conference, taking full ownership of the conference volleyball crown. Memorial finished its calendar 6-1, NorthWood stabbing the last piece of the pie away from the Chargers in the Hardwood Teepee.

Any hopes of a Syracuse shakedown ended rather quickly. Rather than letting Wawasee and its Senior Night festivities create a distraction, NorthWood instead opened on a 17-2 run to open the first game. It really ended there in a 25-9, 25-18, 25-6 Panther romp.

“At 17-2, that set is over, there’s nothing you can do about it other than try to forget about it and go after the next set,” said Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips. “Then we come out and play better in set two, we just didn’t maintain it. They got us down in set three and I could tell the girls were thinking about this being the seniors’ last match, emotions were running, and they freak out. Then you realize you are playing the No. 3 team in the state.”

Ali Knepp passes ahead for NorthWood.

The first game opened 7-2 in favor of NorthWood, looking innocent enough as Wawasee used a couple of kills to get its fair student section involved. But on the service of Gracie Clark, the Panthers rattled off eight straight points very quickly as Phillips ran out of superlatives to offer his defense as point after point dropped in. Clark led the Panthers with five aces and added 10 digs.

Wawasee looked as though it might snap out of it in the second set. At 10-7, NorthWood was the side making the unforced errors while Wawasee racked up points. That all changed, though as NorthWood went on a 7-2 run to flip the scoreboard over to a 17-9 lead. The Wawasee serve receive then began to fall apart as NorthWood picked its spots at the service line and ran away with game two.

“I’m really proud of this group of girls,” started NorthWood head coach Hilary Laidig. “I think in the first set we had one error. That’s a focused set of girls. It’s nothing more than these girls wanting to come in here and set a tone.”

Reality had set in by the time Maddy Payne had a solo block to make it 8-1 in the third set. NorthWood continued on to score 12 of the final 16 points to send a very clear message it is locked in and ready for a run in the postseason. Payne and Kate Rulli each had four blocks, with Payne adding a match-high 13 kills. Ali Knepp flew in from the outside to fire home nine kills and added a pair of aces.

Caroline Mullet continued her elite work as setter for NorthWood, assisting on 38 of NorthWood’s 75 points and adding 10 digs off the line.

With just 33 points to show, numbers were slim for the Warriors. Kai Jamora and Liz Kleopfer combined for 13 assists while Emma Dippon and Molly Jones both had five kills. Madi Simmons led the Wawasee defense with nine digs and Dippon had five digs.

Madi Simmons reaches back for a service attempt for the Warriors.

With the two teams set to square off in the Wawasee Sectional opener next Thursday, both sides realized next week should look different.

“We are going to have to play our best match of the year, and honestly, they are going to have to play their worst,” said Phillips, whose team at 16-15 is having one of its better seasons record-wise this decade. “It’s still possible, but we are going to have to have a lot of things fall in our favor.”

Added Laidig, whose team hasn’t lost since Aug. 24 at the Penn tournament, a string of 24 straight wins, “Expectations were high for us coming into the year. But it’s been our defense that has gotten better and that’s pushed us to another level. We knew what we had with Maddy, and really, so did everybody else. But to get contributions from girls like Ali and Alea (Minnich) on the outside, and Caroline has become a really dynamic player. We’ve had so many kids come a long way that’s gotten us to here.”

NorthWood wins its first NLC title outright since 1997, having most recently split the title in 2017 with Concord. The Panthers are 28-3 overall, its three losses coming in the first week of the season to Homestead and two to Penn. NorthWood now has two wins over Wawasee this season, the other coming in the championship of the Bremen Invite, the third tournament the Panthers have won this season.

NorthWood and Wawasee open the Wawasee Sectional Thursday at 6 p.m. with West Noble and Lakeland to follow. Tippecanoe Valley gets the NorthWood-Wawasee winner Saturday morning, with Jimtown waiting on the West Noble-Lakeland victor in Saturday’s second semi-final. The Wawasee tourney championship is set for 5 p.m.

NorthWood and Wawasee went three in the JV contest, the Panthers pulling out a 25-19, 22-25, 15-6 win. Annika Bennett had 11 assists and four aces to lead NorthWood and Ella Gongwer powered down five kills. Wawasee did not provide stats. The C team game went to NorthWood by a 25-20, 25-10 count. Stats for the match were not provided.

NorthWood poses after winning its first NLC championship in 22 years Thursday night at Wawasee.