Indians take two at invite (09/07/04)

ST. MARYS, Ohio — The Indians needed to shake off some morning cobwebs. When they did, the wins followed.

Fort Recovery’s volleyball team bounced back from an opening-match loss to the Old Fort Stockaders to finish 2-1 at the St. Marys Invitational Saturday.

The Tribe closed the day with back-to-back, two-game victories, the first over the Wauseon Indians 25-22, 25-16 and the second over the host Roughriders 25-9, 27-25. It looked to be headed for victory in the first match as well, but struggled after a strong first set in a 15-25, 25-15, 15-10 loss to Old Fort.

After controlling the action in the first game against the Stockaders — the Tribe scored eight straight points for an 18-6 lead on the way to the win — everything fell apart. It didn’t do much of anything well in the final two sets, and made an effort to reverse that trend in its next two matches.

The Indians (4-1) got their chance to show some toughness in the final match against St. Marys. After dominating for a 25-9 first-game win, Fort Recovery trailed 23-20 in the second.

With the prospect of a third and deciding game staring it in the face, the Tribe scored two points before going down 24-22 when they were called for four hits. But they were unrattled, with senior middle hitter Krystal Rammel delivering a kill to cut the deficit to one.

The Roughriders tried to regroup with a time out, but Emily Hurlburt’s attack to win the game went long. They grabbed another lead at 25-24 before Fort Recovery put the match away with consecutive kills from Jennalee Post, Tiff Gaerke and Megan Wenning.

“I told them they had to prove something to me in the first game (against St. Marys),” said Fort Recovery coach Jackie Briscoe. “We needed to play the caliber I thought we were at right now. They came out to prove something and they did that in the first game.

“I knew that she would have her kids play well the second game. We just have this mind-lapse that we can’t finish in two games. That was our goal, and by god they fought like crazy. ... I was just glad we pulled out with a win instead of going three.”

Middle hitters Rammel and Gaerke took turns bailing the Tribe out in that second game. First Rammel did her job, notching three kills in a 5-0 run which saw the Indians go from 13-9 down to a 14-13 lead.

Then, with her team down 18-17, Gaerke took over the match. She accounted for four consecutive Fort Recovery points to keep it in the game.

Rammel finished the match against the Roughriders with eight kills, and Gaerke, who opened the match with a pair of devastating attacks, added seven.

Gaerke had a team-best 20 kills on the day, and finished with six blocks. Rammel had 18 kills to go along with a team-high 11 blocks.

“My middle hitters are the key to my offense and the key to my success,” said Briscoe, also noting the improvement from her crew of outside hitters and setter Post since Thursday’s five-game victory over Parkway. “When I get them in the front row I need to get the pass up to them. I give them a lot of credit, they fight like crazy.”

Fort Recovery played an excellent first game against Old Fort, going on a 6-0 run on Holly Stein’s serve and adding an 8-0 run with Megan Wenning behind the line. They cruised to the game-one win and then crumbled.

The Stockaders pushed out to a 10-2 lead in the second game, and Fort Recovery never cut the deficit to fewer than four points. It led 7-5 in the third and deciding game, only to have Old Fort finished the match on a 7-1 run.

In the first game against Wauseon the Indians fought off a comeback try, holding on for a three-point win after leading 20-15.

They got a huge boost with a string of five consecutive aces from Stein early in the second game for a 9-2 lead. The lead never slipped to fewer than three points as they finished Wauseon in two games before doing the same to St. Marys in the finale. Stein racked up seven aces against Wauseon and totaled 11 on the day as she scored 29 points. She also notched seven kills. Wenning had 17 points and seven kills, and Post scored 14 points to go along with 69 assists. Vicki Roessner had six blocks and five kills.

“I’m hoping that we learned something from the first match,” said Briscoe. “I’m hoping that they take that mental lapse and make it no more.

“I think that we’ve improved each match. I hope that we keep improving throughout the season.”

Her team will try to do that when it returns to Midwest Athletic Conference action Thursday at Minster at 6 p.m.

Freshmen

Fort Recovery’s freshman volleyball team hosted St. Marys Saturday and took its first loss of the season against the Roughriders, 25-19, 25-16.

Sarah Braun finished with team highs of three kills and one block. Heather Schmackers and Jill Pottkotter notched two kills apiece. LeAnne Tobin had eight digs, Beth May followed with five and Ashley Grube scored five points. Amy Schoenlien added two assists, and Angie Wenning had one.[[In-content Ad]]