Opening MAC volley (09/01/06)

FORT RECOVERY - The Indians' home and Midwest Athletic Conference opener was just about everything they could have hoped it to be.

Tiff Gaerke ran wild at the net, getting just the right amount of help on the attack from an array of teammates. The defense was solid, often making difficult digs look routine. And the result was quick, with Fort Recovery finishing off the visiting Parkway Panther volleyball team 25-16, 25-21, 25-16.

"I'm very happy and excited," said FRHS coach Brad Smith after his first match in front of the home crowd. "We were a lot more mentally prepared tonight than we were on Tuesday."

Gaerke tortured the Panthers (1-1, 0-1 MAC) all night, running down sets all over the front line and pounding home kill after kill. She was ridiculously efficient, finishing with 21 kills on 27 attacks.

"She's what gets the crowd going. She's what gets the team going. Everybody knows that," said Smith. "Tiffany can do everything. ... As good as she is, she's always willing to learn. That's the kind of leadership we need."

Gaerke also had team highs of seven digs and six blocks to go along with two points.

"What she does is just holds everybody because everybody is going to watch her, and they have enough other weapons," said Parkway coach Jeff Marbaugh. "If they give those hitters a single block, they're going to put it away as well. They have a good team."

In the opening game, the help came from sophomore Kinsey Wenning.

Parkway grabbed a 6-4 lead, but a Wenning kill sparked a mammoth Indian run. She added a block on the next point and had another kill with a kill from her senior sister Lauren in between during a 6-0 Tribe rally.

Fort Recovery (2-0, 1-0 MAC) pushed the run to 10-1 thanks to another kill by Lauren Wenning, two from Gaerke and an ace from Lauren Wenning. Abby Niekamp later served the Indians to a 5-0 run, and back-to-back Gaerke aces took the team all the way from their early two-point deficit to a 23-12 advantage.

Kinsey Wenning had four of her six kills in that opening game, and also shared the team-high of seven digs with Gaerke. Lauren Wenning was second to Gaerke with eight kills and was also second on the team in points with 12.

"We know a lot of defenses are going to be defending Tiffany," said Smith, who also got two kills apiece from Vicki Roessner and Joanna Snyder. "We're trying, and I think we're succeeding, to set antennae to antennae using all of our hitters so nobody can play one defense against us.

"We have a lot of good hitters."

Parkway stayed relatively close in the second game and made a late four-point run to get within 24-21, but a kill from Lauren Wenning put the Tribe up two games to none. The home team left little doubt in game three, opening a 6-1 lead behind three Gaerke kills and an ace by Abby Niekamp. A Lauren Wenning ace and a block and kill from Gaerke led another 8-0 run later in the third game as Fort Recovery finished off the visiting Panthers.

Niekamp's eight points and two aces in the final game capped a 15-point evening. She also had 35 assists and two blocks.

Marian Bevington paced Parkway with 10 kills, three blocks and three digs. Ashley Stose had four kills and three blocks, and Katlyn Smith put up 15 assists.

Marbaugh said his team's biggest difficulty on the night was dealing with the Indians' serves.

"It was just too much (poor) serve receive where someone was setting the ball from 16 feet and the outside hitter was trying to hit off that set," he said. "You can't run an offense against them from that far back."

Junior varsity

The Indians rallied from a game down and then again from a 21-13 deficit in the third game, but could not quite come all the way back in a 25-22, 22-25, 25-23 loss to Parkway.

After falling behind in the deciding game, Fort Recovery got back within 21-18 on an Nicole Pottkotter ace. It closed the gap to 23-22 on an ace by Emily May only to fall three points later when Anne Koesters' attack didn't clear the net.

Pottkotter paced the Indians with team highs of 18 assists and 11 points. She was also second on the team with 10 kills, and added two digs and one block.

Kelsey Wuebker had 14 assists, 12 kills and seven digs, and LeAnne Tobin notched eight points and seven digs. Leading the way in blocks were Koesters with eight and May with four. Heather Schmackers had eight digs.

Junior high

GREENVILLE - Fort Recovery's teams each dropped to 0-2 with losses to the Greenville Green Wave. The seventh graders played a close second game in a 25-17, 25-22 defeat while the eighth grade team lost 25-16, 25-11.

Holly Brunswick had team highs of seven points and three assists for the eighth graders. Haley Wilson added three points and two kills, and Olivia Thien had two kills and two blocks.

Rashell Muhlenkamp scored seven points to lead the seventh graders, and Danielle Bihn added five. Olivia Schwieterman and Kara Faller added one kill apiece.[[In-content Ad]]