Fort beats JC in 3 (10/01/2008)

FORT RECOVERY - Only one team could walk away from Tuesday's match with a .500 record. The Indians took advantage of the opportunity.

Fort Recovery took early leads in each game and stayed in control to defeat the Jay County Patriots 25-20, 25-18, 25-17.

"Things are going a lot better," said FRHS coach Diana Rammel, who was frustrated during a three-match losing streak earlier this month but has seen her team play at a higher level during its last six matches. "I don't know what happened. We just clicked. We just started playing together. Tonight wasn't great, because I had three different lineups in, but if you can come out with a win like that ... is pretty good."

Jay County coach Fred Medler was on the other end of the spectrum. After watching his squad play well over the course of its last eight matches, the Patriots struggled against the Tribe.

"We got beat between the ears tonight more than anything," said Medler. "We've got kids who live just across the state line who want to come over here and play well and the intensity is there to begin with ... [but] the intensity kind of takes the game away from you. Sometimes you try too hard. And then we just mentally broke down."

During their rough patch, the biggest problem for the Indians (9-9) was falling behind early in games. They didn't allow that to become a problem against Jay County (11-13).

Fort Recovery gave up the first two points of the match, but pulled even and then sent Nicole Pottkotter behind the service line. She ran off three aces to push the Indians to a 7-3 lead and they never trailed again.

Game two had a similar theme as this time Olivia Thien turned in the three aces during a seven-point service run. Her effort put FRHS up 9-1, and the Patriots got no closer than three points the rest of the way.

Medler said his team's confidence was shaken early.

"And then we'd play (well) for a while, and then we'd let the tournaquet off. And we'd start bleeding again," he said. "We just couldn't maintain any consistency."

Nicole Pottkotter powered the Indians with seven points, six assists, five kills and four blocks. Kelsey Wuebker had 14 assists and six digs.

Emily May finished with 10 digs, Joanna Snyder had nine kills, Anne Koesters totaled five blocks and Olivia Thien had a team-high eight points to go along with three kills.

"(Thien) just came out and played probably the best I've seen her play all year," said Rammel. "She's a tremendous JV player and she has been all year and I knew she could do it, but actually putting her out there and seeing her do it was awesome.

"Joanna had a great night. Annie was a blocking machine defensively. She just put up a wall for us."

Kelsey Wood had eight points, including five aces, six digs and four kills for Jay County. Other team highs came from Chelsea Grady (nine digs), Kristi Morningstar (eight points), Sarah Westgerdes (six killsl), Liz Walker (five assists) and Amy Alig (three blocks).

Junior varsity

Jay County took the opening game, but the Indians controlled the next two for a 21-25, 25-15, 25-16 victory.

Carly Staugler powered Fort Recovery with 21 assists and 12 points. Shelby Brunswick had nine kills and nine digs, Lorraine Shier totaled 11 kills and Sarah Knapke finished with 15 digs.

Taylor Burris had eight points and seven kills to lead the Patriots (7-6), and Becky Muhlenkamp added seven points and three kills. Tanner Martin finished with eight assists and four blocks and Alyssa Rigby added 11 digs.

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