Cardinals edge the Fort (10/15/04)

NEW BREMEN, Ohio — Thursday’s match was yet another Midwest Athletic Conference classic. But those great matches are much harder to appreciate when you come out on the losing end.

A week after knocking off then-Division IV No. 2 Marion Local in a classic five-game battle, the Fort Recovery volleyball team came up on the short end against the New Bremen Cardinals by a count of 25-23, 29-31, 25-20, 18-25, 15-12.

“Every time we play Fort Recovery ... it always ends up being a barn burner,” said New Bremen coach Lisa Thobe. “The records were really close (this year), so I knew that was what it was going to be.”

After the Cardinals (14-7, 5-3 MAC) topped Marion Local Tuesday, the match with the Indians was for possession of third place in the conference behind Division IV No. 1 St. Henry and Minster. New Bremen took control of that slot, thanks in large part to its ability to get out in front easy.

The Cardinals set the tone for the match by scoring the first four points of the first game on the way to leads of 11-4, 15-8 and 19-13. Krystal Rammel notched a block and a couple of kills and Fort Recovery nearly came all the way back thanks to three consecutive kills and a block from Tiff Gaerke to put the score at 22-21.

Kelly Steinemen got a kill and a block to put the Cardinals one point away from the win, but kills by Gaerke and Megan Wenning again pulled the Tribe to within one. But, on the decisive point, Jennalee Post was called for an illegal set to give the opening game to New Bremen.

Fort Recovery (12-9, 4-4 MAC) fought back in each and every game, but held the lead just twice within the first 20 points of any game all night — 6-5 in the fourth and 8-7 in the fifth.

“My kids didn’t exactly show up to play at the beginning of the games, and then they decided when the score was (bad) enough they were going to play,” said Indians’ coach Jackie Briscoe. “That is a problem.

“Basically if we had shown up at the beginning of the games I think they would have gone a little bit differently, but you never know.”

The Cardinals and Indians battled back-and-forth to open game two, but New Bremen put together a 5-0 run for a 20-14 lead. Fort Recovery rallied back behind Rammel, but still faced the possibility of a two-game deficit as it trailed 24-22.

Kills by Gaerke and Wenning and an ace from Post pushed the game into extras, with Rammel and Gaerke eventually notching back-to-back kills to complete a 31-29 Fort Recovery win.

The teams split the next two games, and the Tribe led 8-7 in the fifth before fading at the end.

Steineman slammed three straight kills to put New Bremen up 10-8, giving it a lead it would never relinquish. Steineman added one more kill and Liz Schnelle blasted kills for four of the final five Cardinal points, including back-to-back kills to end the match.

Schnelle and Steineman shared the team high in kills with 18 apiece. Steineman also had 12 digs.

“They all (came up big),” said Thobe. “They’ve been working well. They’ve been hitting well. Carla Evers has stepped up and has been playing well. Kelly Steineman has been playing well.

“All of the hitting, and the blocking, has been much better. We went through a period there where we couldn’t block anything. We were able to keep them out of their offense. They weren’t able to run a lot of stuff.”

Kristen Luedeke matched Steineman with 12 digs, and Abby Cisco added seven digs. Cisco also had 20 assists, and Julie Griesdorn finished with 14 assists.

Sarah Schmiesing racked up 15 blocks (10 solo).

Gaerke paced Fort Recovery with 23 kills, and Rammel and Wenning each added 12.

Rammel added 12 blocks and eight points, and Gaerke had eight points and seven blocks.

Post finished with 53 assists, 18 digs and six blocks, and Vicki Roessner had 14 points. Kelly Link came off the bench for seven kills in the final two games.

“I thought New Bremen did a pretty good job of taking our (middle) hitters out in the first game ...” said Briscoe. “I thought they just stuck with it. ... There has got to be some more fight and more motivation or devotion to get the ball up. We didn’t get it, because we didn’t have it tonight and I’m not sure why.

“It seemed like every time we would get a run going something would happen. We’d be in the net or we’d touch a balling flying out of bounds — something that didn’t need to go wrong, went wrong. Mental errors, (we made) big mental errors tonight.”

Fort Recovery will play its final regular-season match at home Thursday against Coldwater at 6 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]