Winamac Athletics- WARRIOR MENTALITY

Winamac hosted their 5th annual Winamac Volleyball Invitational on Saturday with 12 teams from around the area coming to compete. The Warriors started the day off strong against a scrappy Lake Station, taking both sets at 25-11 and 25-14. After a one game break, Winamac took on a tall Twin Lakes team and fell to the Indians 25-14 in set one. Set two was an incredible battle with Brooke Rausch rattling off two impressive serving streaks to bring the Warriors back from a 3-13 deficit and a 13-19 deficit to eventually tie the game at 19-19. A few miscommunications and tough serve receive rotations ended the Warrior's battle back at 21-25 for their first loss of the season. In the afternoon crossover, Winamac headed to the silver bracket to face the Vikings of North White. A similar story to the Twin Lakes game played out with set one leaving the Warriors down 13-25. Things weren't looking much better at 8-18 in the second set, but Winamac dug in their heels and didn't go without a fight. Maggie Keller helped push the Warriors back into the game with a long serving streak and great defensive plays to make it 16-18. Ultimately, North White's 5'11 outside hitter, Autumn Reif, put the hammer down and finished off set two 21-25. Coach Heather Kasten claims, "The best part of the tournament wasn't starting off with a win or running new plays, it was watching the girls play for each other. They played as a team on Saturday and it showed. Nobody gave up on their teammate. They encouraged each other and did what it took to leave it all on the court. We will go a long way this season with that kind of mentality." Brooke Rausch had 12 aces, a block, 6 kills and 9 digs while Linzy Walters dished out 23 assists, 10 digs and 2 aces. Marissa Iverson added a block and 5 kills. Ally Campbell had 6 digs, 3 aces and 6 kills while libero, Maggie Keller, and freshman, Grace Roth, led the way defensively with 14 and 12 digs, respectively. Freshman, Ava Malchow made her varsity debut with 4 aces, a block and 7 kills.