By BEAU WICKER
Winamac and Pioneer were once again the top two volleyball teams in the Midwest Conference this season. The rivals will take to the court in separate regionals on Saturday in search of their first regional titles.
The regional sites and fields differ vastly for both squads. Pioneer gets to stay close to home with a short trip to Caston for its Class A Regional field. Meanwhile, Winamac must make the long trek up to northeast Indiana near the Michigan border to compete in the Class 2A Westview Regional.
But Winamac, at least on paper, should have an easier road to win its first regional title as there’s only one ranked team in the Westview Regional field, No. 6-ranked Fairfield, the three-time defending champ. Meanwhile, the Caston Regional field has two ranked opponents the No. 8-ranked Panthers will likely have to beat in order to win, No. 6-ranked Washington Township and No. 2-ranked Michigan City Marquette, the 12-time defending regional champion and five-time defending state champ.
Caston Regional
Marquette Catholic (30-6) faces Elkhart Christian (21-9) in the 10:30 a.m. semifinal, followed by Pioneer (26-9) vs. Washington Township (26-8). The title match is set for 4 p.m.
“The last five years Marquette has come out of the regional and won the state, so it has to be one of the toughest regionals in the state,” Pioneer coach Rod Nies said. “This year it’s even tougher with them, us and Washington Township. Elkhart Christian is also in it, so all four teams from last year are back again this year. It’s a strong field and there should be some pretty good volleyball I’m hoping.”
Nies is expecting a close match against Washington Township.
“I think they’re very similar to us as far as height and ability,” he said. “They’re coached by Scott Campbell, [Marquette coach] Troy Campbell’s little brother. So they’re a well-coached team and they’ll be ready to play.”
Marquette, which has won eight state titles overall, has ousted Pioneer from regional play two out of the last three years without dropping a single game to the Panthers, who are making their fourth straight regional appearance.
“If we can get past Washington, if my girls come to play like they did the first time against Logansport with intensity and emotion, and it’s got to be for an entire match all five games, expect five games, if they can bring that we’ll have a shot at them,” Nies said. “Hopefully we’re past the scared stage like last year when we just fell apart. Last year we had a lot of girls playing in a regional for the first time and they were nervous.
“They just served us right off the floor. They have three girls who jump serve really hard and hit with a lot of velocity. That’s something a lot of teams around here don’t bring to us and we don’t see that kind of serving during the regular season. And Ashley Edmonds is a huge problem for us anyway. She’s 6-foot tall and a really fantastic player. … We hope to slow her down and hang in there and in the end have a chance to win, if we can make it that far.”
The Panthers have had a balanced attack this season. Kelsey Williams leads in kills with 197, followed by Kattie Lee (186) and Ashley Gerlach (139). Cortney Hanson has dished out 568 assists. Williams has 113 blocks and Gerlach has 106. Tori Cole has a team-high 219 digs, followed by Lee (187), Hanson (143) and Chelsea Corn (132).
Westview Regional
Winamac (29-6) faces Central Noble (23-8) in the 11 a.m. semifinal, followed by Fairfield (29-4) vs. Wheeler (28-8). The final is set for 7 p.m.
Winamac and Central Noble had one common opponent this season in Tippecanoe Valley according to Warrior coach Cathy DeFries.
“We beat them early on in five games and [Central Noble] played them just before we did and beat them in five,” she said. “Tippy Valley easily won the first two games against them and thought they would win, but Central Noble won the last three games — won the fifth game, 15-13. But that was early in the season and a lot has changed. Any scouting report on us from then wouldn’t be worth much because we’re a completely different team. We’ve had girls step up and play huge roles for us.”
DeFries said Central Noble is led by a strong middle hitter.
“No. 19 runs their offense in the middle and is pretty effective,” she said. “We’ll definitely have to get a block on her to stop her when she’s in the front row.
“Everything looks good on paper, but things happen, just look at what happened to our football team. It’s a matter of putting everything together.”
Last season the Warriors faced Fairfield right off the bat in the regional and were defeated in three games.
“For us it looks better than it did last year, when Fairfield was a buzzsaw coming at us,” DeFries said. “We have more of a chance. We’ve got a regional under our belt; we know what to expect; we’re a year older, a year more experienced and a year smarter. Hopefully that combination will at least get us to the regional championship, where we’d most likely face Fairfield.”
DeFries said Fairfield “graduated five or six girls from last year’s team, but they’ve reloaded. They had kids waiting in the wings. They have a good program. We’ll have to play a good game to stop them if we get to that, but we’ll worry about that when we get there.”
As for the long bus ride to Westview and the possibility of being there for close to 12 hours, not including travel time, DeFries said, “It’s ridiculous. Pioneer goes to Caston and we have to go on a two-hour, 15-minute drive to the northeast corner of Indiana. We’re leaving at 7:45 in the morning.”
Winamac won its first MWC title in 19 years this season and second consecutive sectional championship. The Warriors are led by coach DeFries’ daughter Allie DeFries, who has a team-high 495 kills, 100 blocks and 70 aces. Rachael Franko leads in digs (350), followed by Sarah Doty (265) and Sarah Redweik (201). Franko is also second in kills (213) and third in blocks (62). Redweik has dished out 736 assists. Emily Paulsen has 108 kills and 87 blocks.
