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Lady Zs take 4th, Caston finishes 10th, Winamac places 12th
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
DENVER — Rochester, Caston and Winamac might be the old standbys at the Tomahawk Invitational volleyball tournament at North Miami, but it was newcomer Tippecanoe Valley that shined before being ousted in the championship match.
Valley went 3-1 and finished second, Rochester went 2-2 and finished fourth, Caston 1-3 and finished 10th, and Winamac went 0-4 and placed 12th in the 12-team field.
Valley went 2-0 in pool play with a 25-12, 25-14 win over Winamac and a 25-21, 20-25, 15-12 win over Wabash. They then edged Rochester 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 in the semifinals before South Adams knocked them off 25-12, 25-12 in the final.
Rochester squeezed out a 14-25, 25-17, 16-14 win over North Miami and a 25-9, 25-14 win over Delphi as they also went 2-0 in pool play. After the loss to Valley, they had to play immediately and lost to Northfield 25-17, 25-19 in the third-place match.
Valley
Played inside a stuffy North Miami gym – the air conditioning was out in the balcony seats – Valley and Rochester were tied at 19-all in the first set when the Lady Vikings scored the final six points. The run included two Avery Wagoner aces, a Mackaylie Costello tip and an Autumn Parker stuff block on set point.
Rochester’s Darah Strasser missed long on a kill attempt to even the second set at 23-all, but a Strasser kill and a Hadley Wise kill error clinched the set for Rochester.
But Valley responded by scoring the first four points on the third set thanks to a Costello kill, two Wagoner aces and a Mia Howdeshell back row kill error. Rochester would get back within 7-6 on a Strasser tip, a Jasmine Fuller kill error and an Avarie Montel kill on a joust at the net.
But Fuller put down a kill off the block, and a Betty Shepherd kill off a short serve gave Valley more breathing room.
Later, two-handed Wagoner tip, a Wagoner dump, a Wagoner clean ace and an Audrey Bolinger kill error made it 13-8. The match would later end on back-to-back Costello kills.
“Just settling down and putting our energy back into the ‘we’ and not the ‘me,’ because that’s what kind of happened in the middle of that,” Hutton said when asked how Valley bounced back in the third set. “Once we did that, we really saw we could basically attack at will. Rochester is a super gritty, super aggressive, fearless team. They’re fantastic. Their coaches do a nice job. I have nothing but nice things to say about them. But we just have a little more firepower and a little more experience with that firepower.”
South Adams commanded the title match however. The Lady Starfires rely on the two-setter system of Reagan Beitler and Laney Trausch, outside hitters Reece Beitler and Reagan Bollenbacher and middle hitter Avery Brown.
South Adams went on a 10-1 run in the first set to take a 17-8 lead, and they later closed out the set with a 7-0 run. Another 11-1 run in the second set opened up a 14-4 South Adams lead.
South Adams won the tournament for the third straight year.
“I think their serving is absolutely outstanding,” Valley coach Jon Hutton said. “They do a really good job. They drive that ball deep and hard every single time. They like to mix it up. Honestly, they were able to attack angles at will, and that is a fantastic, fantastic thing on them. They are well-coached. They have some great athletes. It was a lot of fun playing them. It gave us a picture of what we have to do better as we move into our third NLC match Monday (against Goshen). And then we have NorthWood down the road, which is one of our big sectional opponents. So these are the kinds of things we need to just look and grow with and see, alright, here’s our moment. How do we get better?”
Hutton said he found out two or three weeks ago that Valley would be in the tournament, which is typically held on the fourth Saturday in August.
“We just joined kind of late,” Hutton said. “We made some changes in our schedule, and we thought we were in something else. I’ve always wanted to be in the Tomahawk. I’ve always heard just amazing things – that it’s really well run, that it’s greatly organized. To see a Fort Wayne team is something we don’t see enough, which is exciting. And so we just came in at the last minute, which was just a blessing for us. And I love, love this opportunity. … I hope we get invited back and we keep playing for a lot of years.”
Valley is 4-2 on the season.
Rochester
Rochester lost twice to North Miami last season – once in the regular season and once in the 2A sectional at Pioneer – but bounced back after dropping the first set this time. Then came the win over Delphi, which put them in a match against the rival Lady Vikings.
The Northfield match was tied 9-9 in the first set when Northfield went on a 6-0 run.
In the second set, Rochester took advantage of three straight Northfield hitting errors to take a 3-0 lead, but a 9-3 Northfield run later in the set gave them a 14-8 lead, and they held on from there.
Northfield relies on an imposing front row of Camryn Kuhn, Elli Baker and Emma Warnock.
“I think that last game, I just think we were tired,” Rochester interim coach Stacey Wilson said. “I just think that we just couldn’t get there fast enough or the angles were there. But I don’t think it was really a height issue. Sometimes we didn’t close the blocks. I noticed that a lot. So maybe we weren’t getting the angles that we were given (on the) line, and they were able to hit line. … Northfield was doing a really job of hitting line, and so was Valley.”
Wilson was asked if the team was better than it was going into the tournament.
“I saw some glimpses,” Wilson said. “I would definitely say there were some moments today, yeah. I think that last game, they were just so tired. … Eight of the girls played a ton. So by that fifth game, all of us coaches talked to them and said you’ve got to find another level. You’ve got to dig deep. I felt like that second set, they did come back and redeem themselves a little bit.”
Rochester played again without the injured Lillee Lett (lower right leg) and Amara Wieringa (concussion). Head coach Laneia Strasser was out due to a health issue in her family.
Rochester is 2-4 on the season.
Caston
Caston lost to Oak Hill 25-10, 25-8 and South Adams 25-10, 25-11 in pool play. They then came back to beat Winamac 25-19, 25-22 in their first place-round match before a 25-12, 25-22 loss to Peru in the ninth-place match.
Sophomore middle hitter Natalie Warner led the team with 20 kills. Setters Makena Middleton and Madi Douglass had 14 assists each. Karlee Sommers had 27 digs.
Caston is 2-6 on the season.
Winamac
Winamac started with a 25-7, 25-11 loss to Wabash and followed with the loss to Valley in pool play. The loss to Caston followed before a 14-25, 26-24, 15-11 loss to Delphi in the 11th-place match.
Winamac is 2-7 on the season. Individual stats were not made available to RTC.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY TEAM RESULTS (SECOND PLACE)
Valley def. Winamac, 25-12, 25-14
Valley def. Wabash, 25-21, 20-25, 15-12
Valley def. Rochester, 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 (semifinals)
South Adams def. Valley, 25-12, 25-12 (final)
VALLEY INDIVIDUAL STATS
Avery Wagoner – 76 assists, 14 aces; Mackaylie Costello – 32 kills, 4 blocks; Gaby Gonzalez – 36 digs
ROCHESTER TEAM STATS (FOURTH PLACE)
Rochester def. North Miami, 14-25, 25-17, 16-14
Rochester def. Delphi, 25-9, 25-14
Valley def. Rochester, 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 (semifinals)
Northfield def. Rochester, 25-17, 25-19 (third-place match)
ROCHESTER INDIVIDUAL STATS
Audrey Bolinger – 27 kills, 9 blocks; Mia Howdeshell – 39 digs, 29 points; Aubrey Wilson – 53 assists
CASTON TEAM STATS (10TH PLACE)
Oak Hill def. Caston, 25-10, 25-8
South Adams def. Caston, 25-10, 25-11
Caston def. Winamac, 25-19, 25-22 (place round)
Peru def. Caston, 25-12, 25-22 (ninth-place match)
Caston individual stats
Natalie Warner – 20 kills, Makena Middleton – 14 assists, Madi Douglass – 14 assists, Karlee Sommers – 27 digs
WINAMAC TEAM RESULTS (12TH PLACE)
Wabash def. Winamac, 25-7, 25-11
Valley def. Winamac, 25-12, 25-14
Caston def. Winamac, 25-19, 25-22
Delphi def. Winamac, 14-25, 26-24, 15-11
WINAMAC INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
(stats not made available to RTC)
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1. South Adams, 2. VALLEY, 3. Northfield, 4. ROCHESTER, 5. Oak Hill, 6. Wabash, 7. North Miami, 8. Northwestern, 9. Peru, 10. CASTON, 11. Delphi, 12. WINAMAC
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