No. 1 ML eliminates Indians

COLDWATER, Ohio — Coming off of their biggest win of the season, the Indians stormed out to an early lead in their sectional championship match. But they couldn’t sustain the success against the top-ranked team in the state.
The Division IV No. 1 Marion Local Flyers erased their early deficit and took control in the second and third games, ending the Fort Recovery High School volleyball team’s season 25-17, 25-8, 25-17 in the first of two sectional championship matches Saturday at Coldwater.
Despite the season-ending defeat, FRHS coach Kylie Huelsman said she felt the tournament was a major stepping stone for her team. The Indians opened sectional play with a five-game win Tuesday over Minster, a team that had swept them during the regular season.
“This tournament has been awesome,” said Huelsman. “I know we only won one match, but I do see both matches as milestones for Fort Recovery volleyball. Usually when we get down in games rarely are we able to come back. And versus Minster we fought to the death, to the very last point of the fifth game and we came out on top.
“And this match, Fort Recovery never really competes with Marion Local, and tonight we actually competed …”
Marion Local (20-3) scored the first point against the Indians, but then Kendra Siefring caught fire.
Working from the left side, the freshman ripped three consecutive kills down the line to give Fort Recovery (9-15) the lead. Sierra Pugh and Tori Lennartz combined for a block on Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year Claire Heitkamp, and then Cassidy Rammel ripped an ace off the arms of Clara Wuebker for a 5-1 Tribe lead.
“They were playing with confidence after beating Minster,” said Marion Local coach Amy Steininger. “I thought they played excellent against Minster. They played with a lot of heart. And I figured that they’d come out firing.”
But behind three kills from Heitkamp, the Flyers pulled even at 6-6 and later took the lead on a Fort Recovery attack error.
The teams stayed nearly even for the first 29 points — the Indians trailed 15-14 — until Marion Local put together a 5-0 run on Katie Elking’s serve.
FRHS was unable to recover and never led in the final two games.
“We were a little nervous in that first game,” Steininger said. “I just tried to keep the girls calm and once we got that first game under our belt I think they relaxed a little bit.”
St. Henry won the other sectional title match 19-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-19, 15-10 over New Knoxville and will advance along with Marion Local to the district tournament at Van Wert.
After fighting off Fort Recovery in the first game, the Flyers were dominant in the second. They grabbed a 4-0 lead and then picked the Tribe apart in the service game.
Heitkamp ripped off six straight points, the last three of which came on aces, Megan Wendel added an ace and then Wuebker did the rest. She tallied five aces in a span of 10 straight service points to end the second game.
“I thought we served pretty aggressive tonight,” said Steininger. “Clara Wuebker had some really good serving tonight. We definitely want to try to come out as the aggressors.”
Marion Local again had the advantage throughout the third game, pushing its lead to as many as nine points before the Tribe fought back. Hannah Kaup keyed a 4-0 run with a pair of aces, and the teams traded the final eight points back-and-forth before a Cadence Jacobs swing went off the arms of Siefring and out of bounds to end the match.
Much like the first meeting, Heitkamp was the key to the Flyers’ success at the net as she seemed to always make the right choice with her attacks.
“She’s very good at reading the court,” said Huelsman. “She definitely picked us apart. We did a couple good things with blocking and being aggressive … but we just couldn’t sustain it the whole time.”
Pugh finished with eight assists and four blocks for the Indians, and Rammel notched five service points and four kills. Kelsey Fiely came up with nine digs, Siefring had five kills and Lennartz matched Pugh with four blocks.


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