Tippecanoe Valley’s Delaney Wagoner makes contact with a kill attempt Thursday against Jimtown at the Tippecanoe Valley Volleyball Sectional. InkFreeNews photos by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

AKRON – Neither Tippecanoe Valley nor Wawasee would say Thursday’s volleyball contests at the Class 3-A Tippecanoe Valley Volleyball Sectional were clinical. But, both teams are happy to continue their seasons after swift work in their victories.

Tippecanoe Valley 3, Jimtown 0

Tippecanoe Valley’s Bree Sheetz reacts during play against Jimtown.

Valley’s cohesion started to show more as the match went on against the Jimmies in a 25-17, 25-18, 25-17 final. In playing with a full deck, still a little banged up but with all hands on deck, the Vikings jumped out to a quick 10-2 lead in game one to set the tone. After Jimtown battled back to make it 13-11, Valley would go on to score eight of the next 11 points.

The theme would carry over to game two as Jimtown would build a 12-7 lead, only for Valley to power back with a 7-1 run to gain a 14-13 lead and score 11 of the final 16 points to take the set.

One of the glaring differences in the two sides was Jimtown’s inability to cover the middle, to which Hayley Backus would exploit for Valley’s gain. A pair of Backus putaways helped Valley make a 10-3 run in game three, ending a quick night of work for the hosts.

Backus would finish with six kills and two blocks, and the team was happy to see Delaney Wagoner back bouncing around the outside with eight kills and eight digs. Wagoner has been injured with a bum knee for a good portion of the second half of the season.

“We’ve started her left front every game, and want her to get as many opportunities to attack as possible,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Doug West of Backus. “We want her there as a blocker as well. She played maybe her best game of the year tonight, she was effective. She’s been a great middle blocker for us.”

Bree Sheetz added seven kills, Ashley Butler had 10 digs and a pair of aces, Brayden Baney pitched in eight digs and Hannah Engstrand posted 22 assists, 12 digs and two aces.

“There’s always some extra jitters when it’s the first match of a tournament, and it showed a little tonight,” West said. “But we came together and really played well tonight. Hopefully we can come back and win two matches on Saturday. Glad to win tonight 3-0, we’ll take it.

“I expect to see NorthWood pass very well and play their token great defense,” continued West of NorthWood. “They make you earn every point, and we are going to have to win those long rallies and get every swing point that we can.”

Valley (13-13) will take on NorthWood (24-7) Saturday in the first semi-final at 11 a.m.

Wawasee 3, West Noble 0

Wawasee’s Bailey Mayhew finds space for a scoring attempt against West Noble.

Wawasee had just too much at the net for West Noble in a 25-12, 25-14, 25-18 closeout in game two.

The Lady Warriors recorded 40 total kills on the night, 32 of those coming from Bailey Mayhew, Dylan Konieczny and Leslie Vazquez. Mayhew’s kills were attached to three aces and a pair of blocks, one of those aces ending the first set.

Emma Dippon had a kill and Mayhew pounded a pair during a key stretch of game two as Wawasee went from an 11-6 advantage to a double-digit lead. Vazquez and Elizabeth Miller aces to open game three, combined with a Mayhew block broke the back of West Noble, which were in scramble mode all night trying to cover Wawasee’s spray chart of shots.

“Teams that make it far in the tournament are the teams that make fewer errors, plain and simple,” said Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips. “That’s just how volleyball works. That’s our thing. When our hitters are doing their jobs and putting balls away, you have to defend potentially four girls who have 200-plus kills. We just have to make sure the kills are staying in bounds, limiting the errors.”

Vazquez added 11 digs and three blocks and Amanda Allen had 28 assists as Wawasee moves on.

“In our first match with Lakeland, we gave away something like 40 points, the stats say are our fault,” noted Phillips. “You add in the points where we should have covered the tip or didn’t serve receive well, and add in 40 extra points, you’re not going to beat anybody, let alone a good team like Lakeland. That will be required if we want to win a title. We have to make sure we are saving those points, and make plays to put pressure on Lakeland to have to respond to us, not us responding to our own mistakes.”

Wawasee (21-11) will meet Bailey Hartsough and Lakeland (22-7) in game two Saturday, an approximate 1 p.m. start.