FULTON, Ind. – Wes-Del swept Lafayette Central Catholic in the semifinals of the IHSAA Class A Caston Semistate on Saturday, and the three sets almost seemed repetitive.
The Warriors turned in a 25-16, 25-15, 25-16 victory, so the set scores were similar. And each frame was tight in the early portion until Wes-Del pulled away in the middle of the set and didn’t look back.
With the win, No. 1 Wes-Del will face No. 6 Pioneer at 7 p.m. Saturday in the championship match. Pioneer defeated Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian in four sets in the other semifinal.
Wes-Del coach Biff Wilson credited “sustained focus” for his team’s mid-set runs.
“And that’s what we talked about a lot, ‘sustained focus, stay in the moment and understand that as the match goes on, if you can sustain the focus, keep the aggression there, hopefully we’ll pull away,’ ” Wilson said.
Wes-Del’s advantage slipped to 12-10 in the first set, but the Warriors scored 11 of the next 14 points to build a 23-13 lead. In the second set, the Warriors led 15-12 before a seven-point run generated a 22-12 advantage. And Wes-Del used a five-point run in the third set to turn a 16-13 lead into a 21-13 advantage to pull away.
Lafayette Central Catholic is ranked No. 5 in the state, and the Knights eliminated the Warriors in the semistate championship match last season. But the Warriors were in control on Saturday to avoid a repeat of the 2013 result.
“We had a lot of tension from them last year, and we just wanted to come back and get revenge,” junior Alysa Sutton said. “They’re a really good team and we’re proud of ourselves for beating them.”
Sutton had a huge match in helping her team to the win. She had 20 kills on .567 hitting as the Warriors had a .421 attacking percentage as a team. Sutton also had seven digs and three aces. One of her aces closed out the first set.
“Everyone has their own best games, and I think that I was just on today,” Sutton said.
Chloe Kinsey had 13 digs to lead Wes-Del’s back-row efforts, and she also had three aces. Kristen Lansing had seven digs.
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.