Tribe beats NKHS, twice

FORT RECOVERY - The teams had shaken hands and were off the court.

The net was in the process of being dismantled.

The Indians had engaged in a brief, spirited victory celebration with athletics director Barb Sautbine.

And then they had to do it all over again.

The teams were called back to the court several minutes after they thought the match ended when a scoring dispute was resolved. It made little difference in the overall result as the Fort Recovery High school volleyball team still walked away with a 25-16, 25-23, 25-20 win over the New Knoxville Rangers.

"No, never," said Diana Rammel when asked if she had ever experienced such an ending before. "That's a first in my 18-year history with volleyball. That was it right there. I've never seen that before."

The odd ending came when New Knoxville hit a ball into the net to make the game-three score 24-17 in favor of the Indians, who had won each of the previous two. The Rangers were then called for an illegal substitution, and the officials awarded another point to make the game score 25-17 and end the match.

However, because of the illegal substitution the previous point was in effect never played and the score should have remained 24-17. So, the net was reassembled and the teams called back to the court.

New Knoxville managed to extend the match a few more points, pulling to within 24-20. But the Indians halted the second chance there, finishing the match for good on a Chelsey Leuthold kill.

"I just told them, 'You guys need to stay focused. You need one more point, and I don't want this to go another game,'" said Rammel. "Obviously we thought it was over at one time, but I just wanted them to stay focused."

The Tribe spread out the attack behind Holly Brunswick (12 kills) as it improved to 10-9 overall and picked up its second Midwest Athletic Conference victory. Chelsey Leuthold followed with eight kills, Nicole Pottkotter had six, Olivia Thien notched five and Shelby Brunswick and Lorraine Shier each chipped in three.

"I thought Chelsey Leuthold had a tremendous match tonight," said Rammel of the senior, who also added five digs and four points. "That was probably one of her better matches, offensively and defensively. I can always count on her defensively ... tonight she played very, very well offensively as well."

"I thought everybody played pretty well tonight. I don't think anybody played a bad match."

Fort Recovery was in control throughout most of the match, although the Rangers (9-9, 2-5 MAC) threatened to take the second game as they surged to a 16-11 lead. However, kills from Holly Brunswick and Thien evened the score, and then the Brunswicks took over in a 13-1 run that allowed the Tribe to pull away.

After a Thien block made it 18-17 in the Indians' favor, Shelby Brunswick finished off three consecutive points with two kills and a block. Josie Guggenbiller (15 points) followed with an ace, and then Holly Brunswick added a kill and a block to push the score to 24-17.

New Knoxville, which got six kills from Taylor Elshoff and five kills and two blocks from Jena Braden, rallied back with six straight points of their own. But the comeback try ended when Holly Brunswick ripped a kill off the arms of Ranger libero Becca Shelton to end the game.

An early 5-0 run gave Fort Recovery the lead for good in the opening game, and another 5-0 run sparked by consecutive Guggenbiller aces gave the Indians the advantage in game three before the bizarre ending.

Rammel said she was happy to see her team finish off another opponent in three games after sweeping Jay County Tuesday.

"It's a big difference, absolutely," she said. "We're starting to get some confidence back, and it couldn't come at a better time with the tournament right around the corner."

She added that her team, which lost five straight after a 5-1 start, just needed to "go out and play (its) game. There's a lot of talent out there ... and we've got to utilize it to our best potential."

Holly Brunswick had 10 blocks for the Indians, and Pottkotter finished with nine assists and eight points. Emily May totaled 27 digs, Alyssa Brackman totaled 12 digs and Thien had eight blocks.

Junior varsity

The Indians improved to 10-5 with a 25-17, 25-19 victory over New Knoxville.

Kayla Kahlig set the pace for Fort Recovery in the win with 18 assists and eight points. Abby Backs had seven digs and seven points, Ericka Lennartz totaled 10 kills and Holly Thien added five kills.[[In-content Ad]]