SELMA, IND - After the quarterfinals on Thursday evening, the rights to the Delaware County championship game were on the line on Saturday morning. Wes-Del and Daleville would see their first action of the tournament while Wapahani and Yorktown already had a game under their belt. That extra game paid dividends as both The Raiders and Tigers advanced to the championship game.
Game 1: Wapahani (25-2) vs. Wes-Del (4-17)
The Raiders came out firing opening the match with an ace on the very first serve with jump started an early 5-0 run forcing an early Wes-Del timeout. The red and white knew they needed to open with a fast start.
“It was good for us at the beginning,” Wapahani head coach Valorie Wells said. “It was good to get that fresh start at the beginning and I hope we stay that confident.”
That fast start allowed the Raiders to continue their offensive dominance in the first set. Wes-Del was able to score sparingly, but the home team convincingly took the first set 25-11.
Wes-Del showed a lot of fight in the second set and seemed to have really settled into the match keeping things close with the more experienced Raiders squad. The maroon and gray were able to earn a 13-10 lead midway through the set.
“We were expecting them to make a mistake is what it seemed like,” Wells said. “We were over preparing ourselves in our mind since we’d played them before.”
The Warriors continued to fight through the set maintaining their lead throughout nearly the entire set getting one point away from the set victory.
However, the poise of the red and white showed as the Raiders, after trailing nearly the entire second set, found a way to pull out the 27-25 set win.
“We know how good we can be and we’ve proven it,” Wells said. “We can’t get too comfortable or too confident like we did though. Whatever team we play we need to have poise and good chemistry at the same time.”
After an unsettling set two victory for Wapahani, they made sure early in the third set there was no doubt about who was in control. The red and white opened up a ten-point lead, 13-3, in hopes of completing the sweep to advance to the title game.
The Raiders looked like their normal selves in the third set and were able to complete the sweep of the Warriors to advance to the Delaware County championship game.
“I made sure to tell them to keep playing our game,” Wells said. “We know who we are and how to play so we’ll just have to adjust to whoever we end up playing against.”
Game 2: Yorktown (24-2) vs. Daleville (20-4)
This matchup would be the first between these two county rivals. Yorktown flexed its muscles early on in the opening set jumping out to a large lead early.
There wasn’t much discourse through the first set as the Broncos struggled to get anything going only managing to notch 5 points in the set. The Tigers dominated offensively en route to a 25-5 opening set win.
“One of the stressors in our locker room is to take care of things on our side,” Yorktown head coach Stephanie Bloom said. “Let’s do the things we do well and what’s going to separate us from good to great.”
Daleville continued to struggle in the second set with miscommunications and just couldn’t seem to handle the heat from the Tiger hitters.
The green and black continued to display a strong performance on offense and there wasn’t much the Broncos could do to slow them down. The second set continued in the same fashion as the opener with the Tigers taking a 25-11 victory in the set.
Yorktown would go on to complete the sweep of the black and gold in the third set with a 25-12 victory.
Advancing to the championship match in this tournament is not unfamiliar territory for Bloom who has won the last ten tournaments with the Tigers.
“I don’t have a magic wand,” Bloom said. “I’ve just been lucky to have kids that buy in year in and year out, and are willing to work their tails off.”
Heading into the contest against Wapahani, Bloom knows that they cannot overlook their competition despite sweeping the Raiders earlier in the season.
“We’ve got to remind them what our goal is,” Bloom said. “Anytime you play in a championship match you have an opportunity to get better in those situations and that’s important.”
Yorktown and Wapahan will face off for the Delaware County Tournament championship later this evening at 7 p.m.
Contact David Moore with comments at david.moore@bsu.edu or on X @gingninj63
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