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GOSHEN – Thursday night’s game against Class 3A No. 10 Fairfield was one that showed just how far the Wawasee volleyball team has come and how far it still has to go. The 10-time defending sectional champion Falcons have had their way with Wawasee the past few seasons despite the growth on the court by the Lady Warriors.

Despite a great performance by Wawasee for most of the night, Fairfield was able to take advantage of the mistakes by its opponent and claim a 3-1 victory. It was the first time Wawasee had taken a game from the Falcons this decade.

“There’s a mountain that teams have to climb before they start competing with the elite teams,” stated Wawasee head coach Jeff Phillips. “We’ve talked about it, we drew it on the board. You start at base camp, that’s where we were four years ago. What stuff do you fix there?

“Basic stuff. How do you set your lineup? Why do you set your lineup that way? Then, of course, basic fundamentals”

Phillips was just getting started with his post game interview-metaphor.

“Then you move up the mountain,” Phillips continued. “You have your platform now, you start beating some teams and you start worrying about your job on the court.

“Then you move up again and you’re competing against that almost top tier of teams. Now you have to play without errors when the game is tight. Now you have to play clean. Then you get to that top tier and there are only seven or eight teams like that in the state. That’s where you want to get.”

Finally, Phillips drove home his point as to why he was channeling his inner Tommy Danger.

“Tonight was the same as what I just said,” Phillips stated. “Tonight was a microcosm of that climb. From game one to the end we relived those steps.”

There it was, and it all made sense.

Wawasee followed those steps up the mountain just as its coached described them. It started with a sloppy performance in game one where the Warriors struggled to get their footing and sometimes looked out of place. Fairfield took advantage of the mistakes and claimed a 25-18 victory.

Wawasee left base camp in game two. There still mistakes, ultimately ones that may have changed the outcome for the Warriors, but game two was still emotionally charged and showed growth for the Warriors before they fell 25-23.

Game three Wawasee could have easily rolled over to take the sweep, but instead Wawasee brought its best game of the season and completely dominated the Falcons. For a brief moment the Warriors stood atop that mountain claiming a 25-14 victory on a ranked team’s home court.

Exhausted, Wawasee just could not climb anymore as the Falcons would shut the door on an upset bid winning game four 25-16.

Statistically Wawasee was led by Aly Anderson’s 28 digs and four aces. Alli Ousley added 21 assists and eight kills. Becca Anderson added another eight kills. Liza Hardy led the ladies with four and a half blocks.

“It has been a while since Wawasee has taken a game from Fairfield, so obviously that’s a win for us,” Phillips stated. “There a things we still have to fix, but they’re little things now.”

Wawasee (0-2) will continue its climb defending it Elwood Invitational title this Saturday while Fairfield (2-0) will compete in the Michigan City Marquette Invite.

Fairfield took the junior varsity match 2-0 from Wawasee. The visiting squad was led by Kayleigh Rhodes’ three aces, two kills and eight digs.