Streaks fight off Fort

NAPOLEON, Ohio - No team has pushed the Blue Streaks more this season. Still, it wasn't quite enough.

In the Division III district volleyball tournament Wednesday, the Indians became just the fourth team all season to take a game from Archbold. However, missed opportunities in each of the first two games proved too much to overcome against the second-ranked team in the state as Fort Recovery's season ended with a 25-23, 25-22, 18-25, 25-19 loss.

The Tribe gave Archbold its strongest challenge of the year, with a total point differential of just four. No other team stayed within single digits in a best-of-five match this year.

"I would say they're one of the top teams that we've played," said Blue Streaks coach Julie Nofziger, whose team is now 25-0. "And we knew that, with the (Midwest Athletic Conference) that they come from. ...

"Those are the matches the kids love to play, when it's good competition. They thrive on that."

Archbold advances to play Parkway in Saturday's district championship match at Napoleon at 6 p.m. The Panthers (18-6) swept Evergreen 25-20, 25-19, 25-17 in Wednesday's second semifinal match.

After dropping close games in each of the first two, Fort Recovery dominated play late in the third. They finished the game on a 10-3 run to force a fourth game, but fell behind and could not dig out of the hole.

With her team down 2-1 after a Carly Staugler ace, Archbold senior Emily Snyder came up with one of her 14 kills to hand the ball to Stacy Wyse. The setter, using a jump serve, pounded home three aces in a span of four points to give the Blue Streaks a 6-2 lead.

The Indians (14-11) closed to within two points on two occasions, but a 4-0 run that included a Sarah Wyse ace pushed the Archbold lead to 13-7. They were unable to score back-to-back points again until late in the game when they faced a 22-13 deficit.

Fort Recovery pulled to within 23-19 before the Blue Streaks got a kill from Nicole Hurst (six blocks) and then ended the match on a Tribe attack error.

"That down ball serve, just, three straight ... It doesn't help to have three straight serve receive errors," said FRHS coach Diana Rammel, whose team was making its first district appearance since 1994. "That puts you in a rut and we couldn't come out of it."

Stacy Wyse's serving - she added another ace later in the fourth game - was the key to her team avoiding its first game five of the year. She totaled seven aces to go along with 39 assists and four blocks.

Devin Newman added 23 digs and nine kills, and Alyssa Schaub had 15 digs and eight kills.

"It was huge," said Nofziger of Wyse's effort in game four. "She has been pretty inconsistent throughout the year. But since tournament time she has just come on and come on, right at the right time.

"She's made huge plays for us. She's big at the net. She just can do it all."

Fort Recovery had come on strong down the stretch as well, having won seven of its last eight matches, and got off to a hot start against the Blue Streaks. It scored the first point of the match and then ran off three in a row capped by a Chelsey Leuthold ace to take control.

Archbold's first lead didn't come until an Alyssa Schaub kill put it up 14-13, and it later pushed on to a 22-18 advantage. A couple of Holly Brunswick blocks and Blue Streak attack errors brought the game back even at 23, but the second-ranked team in the state scored the next two points to take the game.

The second game was also tied late, at 21, before Snyder racked up three kills to key a 4-1 run that gave Archbold the two-games-to-none advantage.

"Oh my gosh, if we had won that first game I think it would have been a whole different story," said Rammel. "But ... if you can't finish and get that kill (you can't win) ... In matches like this, you've got to come to play."

Had Fort Recovery been able to take either of the first two games, it could have put the Blue Streaks in a situation they have not been in all year.

"I wasn't sure if it went into a fifth game if we could handle that," said Nofziger. "It was in the back of my mind. ... Thankfully we didn't need it."

With their season on the line, the Indians won the third game despite losing senior leader Nicole Pottkotter (20 assists, 14 kills, 11 service points, six digs, two blocks) for a stretch because of an ankle injury. She returned to the court after missing just eight points, and Fort Recovery broke away from a tie at 15 with kills from Holly Brunswick (nine kills, three blocks), Shelby Brunswick, Josie Guggenbiller and Olivia Thien as part of the 10-3 run.

However, Stacy Wyse followed with her outstanding serving early in the fourth game on the way to ending the Tribe's season.

Emily May had a team-high 18 digs for the Indians, and Leuthold added nine service points.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Rammel. "We just couldn't get that good hit (when we needed it).

"We played a nice match. ... I thought Archbold was awesome. They're a great team."[[In-content Ad]]