By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

HOUSTON — The Mississinawa Valley volleyball team started their last stretch of regular season games with a 3-1 road win at Houston on Oct. 7. The Lady Blackhawks cruised through the first two sets before battling through the last two sets.

Head coach Nancy Whitted said Houston figured out how to limit junior Allyson Waymire and that threw the team off. But once they adjusted, they started to play like the team they were in the first two sets.

“Once they started shutting Allyson down, it’s really hard for them to react to that because nobody really shuts Allyson down. We have some good hitters that jumped in and made some smart plays. Putting it where nobody was,” Whitted said.

It was strong hitting and serving that led the Lady Blackhawks through the first two sets. On the front line, juniors Makenna and Cora Hoggatt were attacking the back line of Houston and getting kills. Waymire was capitalizing on free balls from Houston and getting easy points.

Senior Aubrie Cooley contributed as well with solid hitting and getting her hands on some Houston attacks.

From the serving line, junior Danika Neargarder and Waymire were leading scoring runs for the Lady Blackhawks. Mississinawa Valley won the first set, 25-10. Then after giving up the first point in the second set, Mississinawa Valley scored the next 11 points and won 25-14.

Whitted said this team is dangerous when they’re swinging away at the net and at the serving line.

“They come out swinging and ended swinging. That’s what I always tell, that’s probably their number one weapon. Our serves were on point again. They’re hard to stop when we have our hits and our serves,” Whitted said.

Then Houston started to limit Waymire and were giving the Lady Blackhawks a battle in the third set. Senior Caeden Fritz was doing all she could to protect the back line, but Houston started to find holes in the Mississinawa Valley defense.

No team really ran away with the set as there were multiple lead changes that lasted until the very end. Houston’s hitting got the edge in the third set as they won 25-21.

It was another battle in the fourth set even as Mississinawa Valley grabbed an early lead. Houston showed they could go on short runs to cut into the deficit in the first two sets, but they showed in the last two sets they could come back to take a set.

Sophomore Gretchen Rodeheffer was out for this game. She was the only bench player for the Lady Blackhawks. Sophomore Lilly Geesaman got the call up for this game. Whitted said Geesaman filled in pretty well for Rodeheffer. Once the nerves settled down for Geesaman, she made some plays on the court.

“The way she practices and the way she doesn’t give up on the ball, I knew she would fit right in there with Gretchen’s absence,” Whitted said.

It was a close set as Mississinawa Valley called a timeout up 22-21 as Houston was making a run. But after the timeout, the Lady Blackhawks set their sights on ending the match and won the fourth set 25-21.

With a 15-6 record and an 8-2 WOAC record, Mississinawa Valley will end the regular season hosting Preble Shawnee on Oct. 8 at 5:30 p.m.

In the tournament draw, they were the seventh seed in the Division VII Southwest Sectional and will face eighth seed Newton on Oct. 19 at Trotwood High School at noon.

Mississinawa Valley has defeated Newton twice this season. They opened the season with a 2-0 win over them at the Greenville Federal Invite and won 3-1 at Newton on Sept. 12.

Whitted said she expects a better version of this Newton team and thinks it’s going to be a close match.

“We’ve beat them a couple of times. But here lately, they’ve been much stronger than they were in the beginning. I think it’s going to be a tough match,” Whitted said.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].