Warriors Volleyball Falls to Wharton Wildcats

There were not two hotter teams in northern Hillsborough County than Steinbrenner and Wharton coming into Monday night's matchup. Steinbrenner had that unbeaten county streak going, Wharton was 13-0 on the season so far. Something had to give.

Both teams have raucous student sections and both showed up in full throat for the match. It was very much a playoff-type atmosphere.

The Warriors walked into a very loud auditorium and warmed up without senior Madison Seuzeneau. The atmosphere and absence of one of their leaders started the Warriors off-balance. They quickly fell 9-5 behind Wharton's senior outside hitter Caci Andreychuk, crushing the ball at their feet. Without an extra body at the net, the Warriors were out matched up front. The pressure started to get to the Warriors as they fell behind 19-12, then 20-12, then head coach Laura Stegenga called a timeout.

"It (not having Seuzeneau in the lineup) changed a lot of what we do, I had to put a freshman up there in the middle," Stegenga said.

Freshman Leila Oberschall rotated in at the net and held her own despite powerful outside hitting from Andreychuk and net domination by 6-footers Avery Day and Ashton Stocker. The Warriors dropped the first set 25-15.

They dropped the second set 25-18 and it looked like they might get run out of the gym. Then, tied at two, maybe the best point of the match was played; diving efforts, multiple attacks and digs. The Warriors won the point and that's when sophomore Lauren Heldt took over the game.

"We were able to get her some sets over the middle of the net and she just went off from there," Stegenga said.

It was Heldt who hit the killshot to go up 5-4. Heldt made a block at the net for the next point, the Warriors went up 7-4. The Wildcats called a timeout, it was the first they had been rattled all match. Right out of the timeout, Heldt nailed a shot, a couple points later, she hit an ace to make it 10-7. She distanced the Warriors further with a kill shot that made it 15-12. Then, after a brief stumble, it was Heldt with a block to take the third set 25-21.

The Warriors made it to a tie at 6 in the fourth set and that's when they came unwound. The Wildcats shifted two of their 6-footers to cover Heldt and Andreychuk pounded away relentlessly, despite valiant efforts from senior Natalia Campos to keep the ball in play.

"We passed amazingly tonight, we just couldn't hit the ball in the court," Stegenga said.

The Warriors fell 25-19 in the fourth set to drop the match 3-1. The loss does break their county win streak, but their district unbeaten streak and well as playoff aspirations remain alive.