Minster sweeps Fort

FORT RECOVERY - The first month of the season for the Indians has been one of contradiction.

The first two weeks were outstanding, with a 5-1 start, a championship at the St. Marys Invitational and the only loss coming in a five-set match against Division IV No. 2 St. Henry. The last two weeks have seen four straight losses, half of which have come against Midwest Athletic Conference foes.

The latest of those was Tuesday's 25-21, 25-17, 25-15 set-back to the visiting Minster Wildcats that left the Tribe looking for answers as to how to return to the level of play it achieved early on.

"A lot of it was just what it takes to motivate, because we're just flat right now," said FRHS coach Diana Rammel of her post-game talk with her team. "I don't know how you go from just a tremendous beginning of the season - we were playing some of the best volleyball I've seen out of Fort Recovery, and now we're playing some of the worst. I don't know what happens in a two-week span ... that we go from playing awesome to not."

The Indians (5-5, 1-3 Midwest Athletic Conference) stayed close with Minster (7-5, 2-2 MAC) for about the first 20 points of each game before fading away.

In the opening game it was a 6-0 run that pushed the Wildcats to a 23-14 lead. Fort Recovery fought back to get within 24-21 Minster junior Erica Fullenkamp finished the game with a kill.

The second game saw a 7-0 run give the Wildcats a 19-11 lead, and in the third an 8-1 rally pushed the visitors ahead 17-8.

"So far this season we've been the team that plays neck-and-neck and we're usually the team that falls a little bit behind on the serving runs," said Minster coach Ashley Rohrer.

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"So it was nice to see us come out tonight and take charge of the serves and be the one running the ball instead of the other way around."

Fort Recovery scored the opening point in each of the three games, but never led by more than three points (5-2 in game two) during the match. The Indians put together runs of three or more points just twice in the final two games.

"We just couldn't get things put together," said Rammel. "When couldn't string the right serve receive to the right set to the right hit. We just couldn't get things going.

"It was just a rough night for us."

Fullenkamp set the tone for Minster with her 15 kills and five blocks, both of which were match highs. Two of those blocks came back to back in the second game as part of Minster's 8-0 run.

"She's a very nice player. But they were very well-rounded where they didn't have to rely on her," said Rammel of the Wildcats, who also got six kills and three blocks from Delanie Wolf and five kills by Meghan Baumer. "I thought all of their hitters were nice. My girls couldn't really commit on Fullenkamp because they were using everybody else to hit."

Ellen Gruber finished with 17 assists for the Wildcats, and Sarah Huelsman and Dana Stucke each had seven digs.

Nicole Pottkotter paced the Indians, who visit Division III No. 2 Versailles Thursday, with 10 assists, seven kills and four blocks. Emily May had 10 digs and six points, Alyssa Brackman finished with 11 digs and four points and Holly Brunswick had nine kills.

Junior varsity

The Indians pulled away from Minster in the third game to secure a 25-19, 21-25, 25-16 victory.

Fort Recovery took a 13-8 lead before the Wildcats called a timeout in the third game, and then ran off five more points in a row. It stayed in control the rest of the way, going up 24-16 on a kill from Ericka Lennartz on the way to the win.

Abby Backs had 18 digs and 15 points in the victory, and Lennartz totaled 12 points and 11 kills.

Holly Thien finished with 11 digs and six kills, and Nichole Kaiser had 10 digs and six points.[[In-content Ad]]