SYRACUSE – You could cut the tension, and the humidity, with a knife at Wawasee High School on Monday night.

With the Hardwood Tee Pee undergoing some renovations, the season opening volleyball match between Tippecanoe Valley and Wawasee was moved down the hall to the annex gym where it was standing room only. As the gym heated up, so did the intensity of the match as Valley would lose grip of a two-game lead before finally ousting Wawasee in game five to claim a 3-2 victory.

It was all Vikings early on as the visiting squad would claim game one and two by scores of 25-14 and 25-21, respectively. Wawasee woke up in games three and four after shuffling its lineup. The Lady Warriors dominated game three 25-13 and held on for an exciting win in game four, 25-23.

The rally was cut short for Wawasee in the fifth game as Valley jumped to a 5-0 lead and took advantage of a few Lady Warriors miscues to win 15-7.

Monday’s match was one that came down to which team could make a run at the right time as there were only a handful of extended volleys. In the end, it was the first match of the season and both coaches now know exactly what their team can do when the heat is on, literally and figuratively.

“It’s 97-degrees in the gym,” joked Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips. “That’s tough for the first match. It’s the players first match, officials first match. If you play a tight game like we did then go to game five, no player is going to feel really great about themselves physically at the start of that game.

“Mistakes happen, mental errors happen because you’re just tired and drained. Those kind of things happen in the first match no matter what, then you add the heat to the scenario. But, it’s a lot of first match stuff, stuff we can fix.”

There were certainly positives for the Lady Warriors on Monday night. Alli Ousley had a solid night with 27 assists and 14 digs. Three players served two aces including first-year player Grace Ondrla.

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There is no doubt that Wawasee fought hard and wanted the win, but when it came down to it, Valley head coach Mallory Eaton knows her team wanted it more.

“You talk about this type of scenario at practice and it’s hard to do,” began Eaton. “It just comes down to whether or not you’re a competitor. This is where the girls prove to me that they just want to win so bad that losing is just no longer an option.”

Having that will to win is something that comes from Eaton’s senior leaders, especially Caylie Teel.

Teel played a fantastic game all night, working through the heat, bad plays and even the rowdy Wawasee cheer block which keyed on the senior any time she went to serve. Teel’s toughness and all-around ability is something Eaton is clearly thankful to have.

“Teams make it hard for us when it comes to how they handle Caylie,” Eaton said. “They will eventually start stacking her and that’s the problem with having such a young team with a prolific senior.

“I want us to distribute the ball more because Caylie will do it all if she has to, she can handle it, but she won’t be here to be a one man show next year. We have to build up our underclassmen so they are ready to step in next year. Outside of the three seniors, the rest of our roster is made up of junior varsity players from last year.”

Valley certainly played as a team when it mattered most on Monday. Players such as freshman Olivia Trippiedi made some clutch serves while junior Lexi O’Connell played fantastic in the middle for Eaton’s squad.

Jaden Biddle led Valley with 16 digs while Teel added another 11. Madi Miller led the Vikings with five aces.

Valley (1-0) will travel to West Noble on Thursday while Wawasee (0-1) will head north to take on Class 3A No. 10 Fairfield. Both contests start at 6 p.m.

Wawasee found itself to be victorious in the JV match winning 2-0 over the Vikings. Taylor Mock led the team with eight aces and added four assists for Wawasee.