SYRACUSE – A night reserved for the accomplished senior members of Wawasee’s volleyball team turned into one that the class of 2014 would like to forget.

The Lady Warriors hosted Whitko on Tuesday night and were stunned as the Wildcats took three of the final four sets to walk away with a victory 19-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-23, 15-8.

Needless to say, Wildcats head coach Brandy Smith was ecstatic about her team’s victory, “This is such a great win for us. We are coming off of a rough game against Columbia City last night so to walk into this situation was not easy. I don’t think this was probably the best game Wawasee has played, but it was certainly our best and it feels awesome.”

The Wildcats dropped the opening set, despite having a late lead, but Whitko refused to be discouraged by the loss In the second set the Wildcats were able to grab a lead early and hold it late when Wawasee applied pressure.

Wawasee seemed to have things in control after winning the third set but it was Whitko that proved to be clutch again

late in the fourth set to hold on for a two-point victory. The momentum from the win appeared to carry over into the fifth set as Whitko jumped out to a 5-1 lead and would extend it lead to as much as nine points before ultimately winning 15-8.

One key to Whitko’s success was Tressa Keim. The junior, who has a history of “inconsistent” play according to her coach, was a model of consistency for Whitko and a constant pain for Wawasee. While Keim’s stats were not eye-popping with seven kills, seven digs and three aces, it was her intangibles that lifted her team more than anything.

Keim was one of the few players whose passion for the game was visible throughout the entire match as she never let her teammates checkout mentally. Whether it was by design or improvise, the junior was always around the ball keeping every volley alive for as long as possible for her team to have a chance.

Following the lead of her coach, Keim was all smiles following the victory, “It was a great accomplishment for us to win tonight, I felt we really played like a team. Sometimes we have the games where we get down on each other but tonight we brought it together and kept our energy level up.

“We had great attacks, we were talking, we were covering, our serves were a little iffy, but overall this is probably the best serving night we’ve had. It was just a great win and we’re glad to have it.”

Keim was right it was a team effort and the rest of the Wildcats roster played a big role in Tuesday’s win. Whitney Hobbs was the biggest stand out on the stat sheet as she led her team with 12 kills, three blocks, four aces and also had four digs. Maddie Gawthrop added another 11 kills and seven digs while Elaine Warner had an outstanding night with 35 assists.

For Wawasee, Senior Night did not go as planned. Senior Hunter Gaerte stepped up in a lot of ways for her team with a team high 14 kills and also added two blocks and 15 digs. The Warriors were without usual setter Alli Ousley who was out with a concussion but sophomore Tia Long stepped in for the junior and tallied a team high 17 assists. Aly Anderson led a ll players with 45 digs.

Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips was brief with his thoughts on his team’s performance, “Tonight, we did not play well enough to win.”

But when speaking about his seniors, Phillips had much more to say, “The most important part of the night for us, after the match, is honoring our seniors. They’ve given a lot to this program. They’ve given 100 percent in their time here, they’ve bought into everything. This year they’ve done a great job leading the team as our three captains.

“They are the reason we are where we are and they allow us to keep moving forward and keep building the program. I’m really proud of all three of them, they obviously all gave 100 percent tonight. I just wish the outcome could have been better.”

Wawasee (14-12) will travel to Elkhart Memorial on Thursday for an NLC contest. Whitko (6-16) will play host to Canterbury on Thursday.

In the junior varisty contest Wawasee’s JV improved to 8-6 on the season with 25-16, 25-16 win over the Whitko JV. Tia Long had six digs, six assists and two kills for the Warrior JV.