West Noble’s Madison Schermerhorn covers a Tippecanoe Valley attempt Thursday during the Chargers’ 3-0 win over the Vikings at the Fairfield Volleyball Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BENTON – There are days when pure grit can carry a team through. There are days when momentum takes over. Valley wasn’t able to generate either scenario Thursday night in a sound 3-0 win by West Noble in the opening night of the Fairfield Volleyball Sectional.

Tippecanoe Valley’s Shayleigh Shriver (7) and Sophie Bussard converge on a West Noble attempt.

A lethargic start by Valley, which had just played for a championship at the Tiger Spiker last weekend, left a fog over the Vikings that never really lifted. Credit then went straight to West Noble, which came out of the gate with a swagger and took advantage of the opportunities.

Between the hard throw downs from middle hitter Madison Schermerhorn, the grindy defense of the Charger back line, and smart tips to space from both Kristina Teel and Kristina Peterson, West Noble just put together the better package.

In a 25-11, 25-7, 25-15 final in the Class 3-A matchup, there wasn’t much other way to spin it.

“I’m not really sure what it was,” began Tippecanoe Valley head coach Mallory Eaton. “I felt like we were prepared and felt like the girls were excited. But passing, in my opinion, is 99 percent mental and we couldn’t generate any offense because we couldn’t get the ball to our setter. It wasn’t just one particular player, we just couldn’t pass across the board. I don’t feel that we ever gave up or that we couldn’t do it. We just couldn’t get the momentum built. We couldn’t get clicking and we couldn’t get into a rhythm. When you can’t get into a rhythm, it’s really hard to score runs of points.”

Valley never claimed more than a four-point lead at any point of the night, and that came in game three at 12-8. From there, West Noble rattled off 13 of the next 16 points to close the night out, helped by a pair of aces from Kenzie Teel, who had four aces on the night.

The Chargers had a similar outburst in game two, leading just 8-4 before going on a 17-3 run to end the middle game, completely deflating the Valley postseason balloon.

Emily Peterson sets up a Valley scoring chance.

And as had been the case for much of the season, the Vikings weren’t able to overwhelm at the net in defense. Schermerhorn and Kenzie Teel combined for 19 kills, the duo helping West Noble win nine of the final 11 points of game one, a monster crush by Teel sending the message.

“Both (Schermerhorn and Teel) are phenomenal hitters and we don’t have that,” Eaton said. “My biggest kid (Makenzie Woodcox) is a freshman and she is still trying to figure out the blocking game.

“In year’s past, we didn’t have people even touching the ball. I look at it as growth. We are making more touches in the front row, but we’re just undersized.”

West Noble (29-5) had Erin Mawhorter record four aces and six digs and Kristina Teel dig nine attempts. The Chargers will get a third matchup with Fairfield after the Falcons (22-8) stormed past Lakeland (3-29) by a 25-7, 25-7, 25-16 count in the night’s first contest. West Noble most recently beat Fairfield last weekend in the Northeast Corner Conference championship game, and swept the Falcons in the regular season matchup.

Valley (20-13) did reach one of Eaton’s goals with its 20th win recorded at the Spiker, and goes into the offseason with a young sophomore group that should only get better with age.

“There’s nothing to hang our head’s about,” Eaton said noting several achieved team goals. “Is it disappointing? Yeah. But when you look at the season as a whole, they want banners in the gym. But are we better than we were August first, and every kid shook their head yes.”

Wawasee (6-20) and NorthWood (16-16) will play in game two Saturday for a right to face either West Noble or Fairfield in the championship at 5 p.m. Play begins at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Tippecanoe Valley senior Taneisha Brown is introduced prior to the matchup with West Noble Thursday night.