Indians smash Coldwater (10/22/04)

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians are tuned up. Saturday, they will get a chance to rev the engine and see how far it can take them.

The Fort Recovery volleyball team finished its season with a strong performance, rolling over the Coldwater Cavaliers 25-12, 25-17, 25-22. Now it heads to the state’s most difficult sectional tournament, where it will open against the New Knoxville Rangers at New Bremen Saturday at 1 p.m.

“It was a good warm-up to go into Saturday with confidence and with momentum,” said Fort Recovery coach Jackie Briscoe.

The sectional field is loaded with talent as every team comes in with a record of .500 or better and five of the six are ranked among the top 20 in Division IV. The Indians lost to New Knoxville (11-11) during the regular season, but hope to avenge that defeat to earn another rematch — against the St. Henry Redskins.

St. Henry (19-3 and ranked No. 1 in the state), which topped Fort Recovery in three games during the regular season, would be the Tribe’s opponent in the semifinal round. The three teams on the other side of the sectional bracket are No. 3 Marion Local (18-4), No. 13 Minster (17-5) and No. 19 New Bremen (13-7).

“Saturday we have to be mentally focused and play the ball that we know how to play,” said Briscoe. “(We need to) play within ourselves and do what we know how to do.

“I think that we have a very good chance, and I hope that the kids feel the same way.”

The No. 17 Indians (13-9, 5-4 Midwest Athletic Conference) built some confidence Thursday as they went on a 10-1 run midway through the first game, and pulled away late in the other two against the Cavaliers. The game-one run came almost entirely from senior Krystal Rammel and sophomore Tiff Gaerke.

With the Tribe leading 8-7, Rammel ripped a kill to get the ball back for the Indians. Gaerke and Jennalee Post each had one kill, and Rammel followed with a pair of aces before Coldwater coach Jeanette Vaughn called a timeout.

That break didn’t matter much as Gaerke took control. She finished five of the next six points with four kills and one block to complete the 10-1 run for an 18-8 Fort Recovery lead.

The Cavaliers (10-12, 3-6 MAC) never came close as the Tribe pulled away.

“I thought that my go-to girls did a really good job tonight,” said Briscoe of Gaerke and Rammel, who finished with 18 and 11 kills respectively. “They found the holes, they put the ball where they needed it and things just ran.

“It opened up the court for the rest of my hitters. I thought all my outside hitters just did a great job.”

Briscoe also said she thought Post helped keep the momentum on the Indians’ side by being more aggressive at the net. It paid off, as Post finished behind the middle hitters with five kills.

Vicki Roessner had four kills, Kelly Link and Megan Wenning each had three and Holly Stein added two.

“We knew that coming in,” said Vaughn. “We knew they had big hitters. We knew we wouldn’t stop them — we were hoping to contain them a little bit. Finally in the third game we started getting a hand on the ball. When your blocking is not there against a team with hitters like that, you’re not going to get very far.”

Coldwater stayed close in the second game, trailing just 19-17 before the Tribe ran off four straight points to pull away. Game two ended on back-to-back kills by Gaerke and Roessner.

The Cavaliers managed to hold a lead late in the third game at 18-16 only to have Fort Recovery go on a 5-0 run to take control. The visitors were still within 23-22 before Roessner and Rammel notched kills to end the match.

Sophomore Lindsey Bruns led Coldwater as it tried to rally in the third game, and she finished with 11 kills and seven blocks. Karla Niekamp had nine kills and three blocks, and Danielle Goubeaux added six digs.

“We started to get an offense going a little bit,” said Vaughn. “We started to get a block and at least slow the ball down so we could dig the first ball up. Serve receive improved a little bit. Once we started to get an offense going it helped, but we still had a lack of defense.”

Gaerke had a team-high of 10 points for Fort Recovery, and matched Rammel for a team-best six blocks. She also had three digs.

Rammel added 10 digs and eight points.

Rachel Brackman had 11 digs, and Link scored nine points. Wenning, Roessner and Stein each came away with three blocks.

Junior varsity

The Fort Recovery junior varsity Indians dominated the first game, but dropped the next two in a 16-25, 25-18, 15-7 loss to Coldwater Thursday.

The Indians jumped out to a 22-16 lead in game one. Jodi Tobe smacked back-to-back aces to force game point, and the Tribe took the opener on an Abby Niekamp tip.

But, Fort Recovery trailed 21-15 in the second game and 12-5 in the third and was unable to mount a comeback in either as it slipped to 15-6, 4-5 MAC on the season.

Lauren Wenning led the way with nine blocks and eight kills. She also had six digs and one assist.

Alicia Schwieterman had 11 points and seven kills, and Tobe added nine digs and four points. Niekamp racked up 19 assists, and Brittany Brackman had eight digs.[[In-content Ad]]