Volleyball Districts Start Tuesday, Lakers Coach Discusses Odds

The varsity volleyball team is headed to Farmington for Class A districts this week.

On Monday, the Lakers will play Harrison at 5 p.m. in the first round at Farmington High School. A win would send them to the second round to play the district host on Wednesday.

Head Coach Julian Wargo’s team finished the regular season 15-17-2 and second place in the Oakland Activities Association White division.

Wargo believes his team “is capable of showing more.” West Bloomfield won the Romulus tournament last weekend by beating then unbeaten Port Huron in the finals. At the tournament, the Lakers played some of their best volleyball of the season.

West Bloomfield Patch talked to the coach about where his team is at headed into its first playoff game on Tuesday:

Patch: What in your mind prevented the Lakers from reaching their full potential this season?

Julian Wargo: Our serving wasn’t where it needed to be for us to be contenders. That’s what has been holding us back more than anything else. When our serving improves our passing improves, when our passing improves now our setting improves. It goes from there.

P: When you say it was holding you back, how so? How did the girls struggle with that aspect of their game?

JW: We were hitting our serves soft. Now, we are serving more aggressively and getting more points off our serve. That’s important to get more momentum going.

P: You don’t have a lot of height on the team, is part of the reason serving is more important?

JW: We’re smaller that’s why we really have to emphasis our passing and serving. We have to be able to run pin-to-pin as they say. We just can’t run the middle and outside. We have to get production from the right and the back row.

P: Looking at the district West Bloomfield is in, how do you break down the competition?

JW: Our district is Mercy and everybody else (laughs), which is a great compliment to (head coach) Loretta Vogel and her squad.

P: If the Lakers are going to make a run, what players are going to make that happen?

JW: Jackie Pyles is obviously our key, both offensively and defensively. She’s our leading attacker, leading passer and she leads our teams in aces. A real triple threat.

The next senior I would count on is Julie D’Angelo. She’s our setter, and she like Jackie is one of our team captains. I’m counting on her serving and her ability to read the block and get the ball into the hot hand. She’s really improved this season in handling less-than-stellar passes.

P: With winning the Romulus tournament last weekend, do you think you will have some more momentum going into the tournament than the team did last season?

JW: I’m hoping. I’m hoping that bodes well. If you take a look at our schedule versus last year we played every tough team we could.

This year we played just about every tough opponent we could. We were in the Marian tournament, Lakeland tournament and the Bedford tournament. Many of the top 10 teams with exception of Mercy and Marian we played. We’ve played Clarkston, Novi three times, Lake Orion twice, Seaholm three times, Canton once. I’m hoping by playing tougher opponents we are going to be tougher teams.

P: With your second regular season in the books, how did this year compare to last year? Did you do anything different? 

JW: I seem to be a little more laid back since I understand the girls better and I think the girls are little bit more responsive cause they understand me better.

P: It’s a give-and-take.

JW: Yes, yes.

P: Thanks for taking the time coach, good luck in the playoffs coach.

JW: Thank you.