Winamac Athletics- WARRIOR MENTALITY

The Lady Warriors traveled to North Miami on Saturday for the 40th Annual Tomahawk Tournament. While the win-loss ratio doesn't look the best in the record books, it doesn't do justice to what took place on the court. Being short two starters yet again, including Athlete of the Week Kaelyn O'Conner, Winamac came out determined to make big plays. The Warriors came out and played 4 tough matches Saturday, starting with a tall, senior heavy Peru. The Tigers took set one 22-25, but the Warriors came back in an emotional win 26-24 in the second set. A bad string of missed serves and wild swings, left the Warriors short in the third set 3-15. Winamac turned around and came out tough against newest sectional opponent and former semi-state finalist, Wabash. The Lady Warriors rallied hard the first 10 points of the set, but it started to slip away mid-set and left the Warriors at a disadvantage with the score 14-21. After a quick timeout, Winamac battled back and rallied 6 points to Wabash's 4, leaving the final score of set one 20-25, Wabash. The Apaches came out strong the second set, leaving the Warriors with a 9-25 loss and 0-2 in pool play. After two tough losses, the Lady Warriors used what had worked for them that morning - aggressive serving, great coverage of our hitters, and running the ball in system - to come out against another senior heavy team, North Miami, in the bronze bracket. Each set was a battle of service receptions and the Lady Warriors fell short in 3 sets, 18-25, 25-22, 12-15, leaving them to face Northfield in the final match of the day. Fatigue and mental exhaustion set in late in the afternoon, leaving Winamac 0-4 on the day after dropping both sets to Northfield. "Even though the scores don't always show it, our varsity girls played a lot of great volleyball today," praised Coach Kasten. "There are still a few mental slips that we're working on, but we did great running against some big, strong competition with yet another new line up. I am proud of how well these girls are playing together as a team and finding ways to make it work on the court. We've already made huge strides within the past week, running more and more in system, strengthening our out of system plays, getting more and more touches on the block - they're doing the little things that will make the big difference by the end of the season." Headliners of the day included McKenzie Hinz with 21 kills, 7 aces and 24 digs and 3 blocks. Lauren Fredel with 35 assists and 8 digs. Hailey Attinger added 2 blocks, 2 aces and 9 kills. Piper Link added 7 kills, 4 aces and 8 digs. The Warriors are back in action Tuesday night at Tippecanoe Valley High School, start time 6:00 PM.