SYRACUSE — It certainly was not the game they expected, but the Vikings will take the win either way.

The Tippecanoe Valley volleyball team opened up the season at Wawasee Tuesday night in what many expected to be an easy contest for the Vikings. The host Warriors had other plans and gave Valley everything it could handle and then some before the Vikings finally escaped with a 3-2 victory.

“I might go gray if all our games are like this,” a relieved Valley coach Mallory Eaton said. “I think this will be something to build upon for the rest of the year, something to reference. It’s just about building that confidence and belief.”

All the confidence in the world belonged to Wawasee in the first two games. The Warriors held on for a 25-23 in game before getting a convincing 25-14 decision in game two. But after that it was all Valley.

The Vikings picked up steam with a 25-18 win in game three, held on 25-21 in game four and avoided blowing a lead to win 15-11 in a fifth game tie-breaker. The performances from the first two games compared to the last three were truly night and day for the Vikings. Valley stole the momentum right from under Wawasee and used it to race to a win.

“I’m going to say a lot of what happened out there was about our youth,” said Eaton. “80-percent of my team is 15 and under, so we’re very young. I think we were playing with some fear and I told them there was nothing to be fearful of when you’re already down two games. I think they shook off their concerns and just went after it at that point. The injury was unfortunate for Wawasee, I think that kind of changed things in our favor, but our team still fought, I’ve got fighters.”

The injury Eaton was referring to was one sustained by Wawasee’s Cassie Ponce in the third game. Ponce appeared to injure her ankle. Whether or not that changed the fortune for either team is certainly debatable but the loss was one Wawasee coach Kayla Riportella hated to take.

“We lost one of our offensive assets on the court tonight and that hit our team hard,” Riportella stated. “The girls did a great job recovering from an injury to our lineup and were able to fight hard all night despite not getting the win.

“We fell short tonight but we started our season off on such a strong note with the way we played. I know Fairfield is going to be tough, and we’re anticipating it, but I think we’ll be prepared for our next match and for that win, even more so after tonight.”

Emily Peterson led Valley with 24 assists, Abby Better topped the team with 14 digs while Peterson and Sophie Bussard each had a pair of blocks.

Olivia Clouse led Wawasee with nine kills and five blocks. Seaquinn Bright recorded six kills, Peyton Rookstool had four and Liz Hardy added three blocks.

Wawasee (0-1) will travel to Fairfield Thursday night while Valley (1-0) plays Thursday at West Noble.

Wawasee won the junior varsity match 2-0 by way of 25-22 and 25-23 victories.