Rockets finish Fort in four (09/21/05)

ANNA, Ohio — “We made the most errors.”

Fort Recovery coach Jackie Briscoe promised Monday that the team which made more mistakes would lose the showdown between her Division IV No. 19 Indians and the Division III No. 16 Anna Rockets. The Tribe ended up on the short end, 25-17, 16-25, 25-17, 25-19.

The Indians, who dropped to 7-4 with all four losses coming against state-ranked teams, put together a strong finish to the second game, but fell apart after grabbing a 12-11 lead in the third.

“They started playing really smart and the blocking really came alive I thought in the third game, which was a huge difference,” said Anna coach Karen Zumberger. “I thought that was a huge momentum shift going into that fourth game ...”

Kristen Schwieterman had served Fort Recovery from an 11-5 deficit to a 12-11 lead, ending the 7-0 run with an ace. But the Tribe couldn’t put anything together after that, quickly giving the lead back on a 7-0 Anna run.

The Rockets continued to pull away — they finished on a 14-5 stretch — with Kelli Barhorst closing the game with a block of Tiff Gaerke and back-to-back kills.

Anna (11-2) went on a 13-5 run to take a 16-8 lead in game four. The Indians finally rallied to within 21-17 thanks to a pair of Julie Link aces and a Holly Stein kill, but Rachel Billing wouldn’t let them get any closer.

Billing ended the Tribe run with a kill after a Rocket timeout and finished the match with another kill five points later.

“In the second game we had the momentum going,” said Briscoe, whose team capped game two with a 12-3 run. “I felt like we came out in the third game and we let them get the momentum back and we could never regain (it).

“We made the errors, again. Yes they’re a good team, they put the ball down when they get the chance, but if we can’t pass the ball and we can’t have good swings at the ball then we can’t obviously get a win out of that.”

Barhorst, a sophomore, did everything for Anna, finishing with team highs of 14 kills, 10 digs and five solo blocks. Freshman setter Kelsie Zumberger had 36 assists.

Billing finished with 10 digs and eight kills, and Diane Albers had nine kills.

“I think from the very beginning we knew we had a lot of fire power,” said Zumberger. “We have four exceptionally big hitters that are real tall and they can thump. I think that once we get our pass going we’re able to (get our offense going). It’s a quick offense and blockers can’t stay with it. I thought the girls did an excellent job of running it tonight.”

Gaerke led the Indians with 17 kills and four blocks. She was second on the team in digs with 14 and points with seven.

Schwieterman scored 12 points, Jennalee Post had 27 assists and Vicki Roessner notched 15 digs. Kelly Link had eight kills, and Lauren Wenning finished with three blocks.

Briscoe, whose team’s other losses came against Division III No. 2 Versailles, Division IV No. 1 Sidney Lehman Catholic and Division IV No. 5 Old Fort, said the little things kept the Indians from victory against Anna.

“I felt like our fundamentals broke down,” she said. “I thought our serve receive broke down in the first game. Our serving was not as good in the first game. We picked that up a little bit, but the whole match we really struggled with serve receive and passing the ball so we could get our hitters the ball.”

Junior varsity

Fort Recovery improved to 8-0 on the season with a 25-17, 25-16 victory over Anna.

The Indians controlled the first game before trailing early on in the second. However, they went on a giant run with LeAnne Tobin serving to take a 19-10 lead and never allowed the Rockets to recover.

Kinsey Wenning finished off the match with an ace off of Lauren Freisthler.

Tobin powered the Tribe with team highs of 13 points and 10 kills. She also had seven digs, one assist and one block.

Heather Schmackers totaled 25 assists and eight digs, and Wenning had 11 digs and a pair of blocks. Joanna Snyder had eight kills and seven points, and Sarah Braun had two blocks.

Freshmen

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians jumped back above .500 Tuesday with a 27-25, 25-21 win over Van Wert.

Rachel Tobe powered the victory with five kills, five points and two blocks.

Annie Koesters had five kills and two blocks, and Kelsey Wuebker notched seven points and three kills. Chelsea Klenke had three kills.

Junior high

NEW KNOXVILLE — The Tribe teams each defeated the New Knoxville Rangers Tuesday. The eighth grade squad improved to 7-1 with a 25-16, 26-24 win, and the seventh graders evened their record at 4-4 with a 25-18, 25-21 victory.

Sylvia Schwieterman had 12 points, and Hillary Staugler added five for the eighth grade team. Emily May had seven kills, and Josie Guggenbiller and Beth Link each had two kills.

Haley Wilson led the seventh grade team with nine points, and Holly Brunswick followed with eight points. Olivia Thien had four kills, and Megan Rammel finished with three kills.[[In-content Ad]]