Fort Recovery runs crush the Patriots (10/01/03)

PORTLAND — Playing in their only rally scoring match of the season didn’t faze the Indians. If anything, they were better.

Fort Recovery played as close to mistake-free volleyball as it has all season, victimizing Jay County for a 21-12, 21-12, 21-16 win.

“Our game plan tonight was to be consistent and keep the ball in play,” said Fort Recovery coach Jackie Kaup. “Our unforced errors were minimal tonight. It’s what we need to do more.”

Kaup added that she wanted her team to play good defense, and not force things on the offensive end. She didn’t want to give away easy points in the rally scoring format.

The Indians (14-5) were happy to oblige their coach, also taking advantage of the Patriots’ mistakes. Five different times in the three-game match the Tribe put together runs of five points or more.

“(We allowed) too big of runs on their part,” said Jay County coach Fred Medler. “That’s happened to us all year. We got dominated at the net too. (Joscie Kaup) did a great job of setting the tone for the match for them.”

Medler talked about Kaup’s ability and effort to get to every ball possible defensively. The Fort Recovery senior was also responsible for the second largest of her team’s runs, a nine-pointer.

Early in the first game Krystal Rammel served the Indians to an 8-1 lead with seven consecutive points. Jay County managed to slice the advantage to 9-8 with a couple of Shannon O’Dell kills capping the rally before Kaup effectively ended the game.

She stepped back and unleashed a nasty jump serve at the Patriots, scoring aces on each of her first two swings. Two kills by Briget Metzger, one from Tiff Gaerke and another ace that went diving to the right corner of the court put the Tribe up 16-8 before Medler called a timeout.

Kaup welcomed the Patriots back to the court with another ace, forcing Medler to bring in Sara Hough.

Hough wasn’t playing because of an injured ankle, but proved to be the lone player who could consistently pass Kaup’s serve, finishing with five digs in limited playing time. Fort Recovery managed one more point for an 18-8 lead, with the Patriots finally getting a side out when Metzger hit an attack into the net.

Still, Jay County couldn’t recover as the Indians went on to a 21-12 win on a Megan Wenning kill from the back row.

Kaup finished second on the team in points with nine — including five aces — and kills with seven. She also had four blocks and four digs.

“Joscie’s been working on that jump serve,” said Jackie Kaup. “We tried it out last weekend and it was successful.”

Kaup said the plan is to break out the jump serve in Midwest Athletic Conference action when the Indians visit the Division IV No. 7 Marion Local Flyers Thursday at 6 p.m.

The Patriots (9-14) rebounded for a 5-0 lead in the second game, but Lindsay Gaerke put them in a hole again with an even bigger run.

Gaerke served 10 straight points, including one ace, getting help from a pair of Kaup kills and a variety of Jay County errors to push the Tribe ahead 11-5. The Patriots closed the gap to four points, but never got closer with Jenn Stahl scoring a kill to end the second game with the same score as the first.

Game three was much the same, with Jay County taking a 10-7 lead before faltering. The Indians scored 10 of the next 11 points with Jennalee Post and Lindsay Gaerke — who had two more aces for a team-high 14 points — serving for a 17-11 lead.

Once more the Patriots pulled within four only to have Tiff Gaerke finish them off with a cross court kill, one of her six in the match.

Stahl paced Fort Recovery with eight kills and nine blocks. Metzger notched five blocks.

Post had team-best six digs, and Wenning added five.

“The jump server [Kaup] got a run against us,” said Medler, “and it was after they had been up 8-2. They were tough enough serves that she should’ve gotten five points, but not 10.

“(Lindsay Gaerke’s run) totally destroyed what confidence we got off of the 5-0 start.”

Jay County got seven kills and eight points from Overla. Julie Sours followed with four kills and a team-high 15 digs, and Sarah Ainsworth had five points and 13 assists.

Erin St. Myers came away with 13 digs.

Jay County’s next action will come when it hosts the Olympic Athletic Conference tournament Saturday.

Junior varsity

Fort Recovery also got its share of big scoring runs and aces in its 21-11, 21-12 junior varsity victory over Jay County Tuesday.

The Indians (12-1) built a 6-1 lead in the first game thanks to four aces from Kristen Schwieterman. Kelly Link added four more during her service run to put the Tribe up 15-2 as it rolled to the victory.

The second game was close for a while, but Julie Link was tremendous as Fort Recovery finished off the win. She made an awesome diving save of a ball nearly underneath the net early on, and finished the match with back-to-back kills.

Julie Link paced the team with six kills on the evening, while Kelly Link and Schwieterman shared the team-high of seven points. Vicki Roessner and Kristi Westgerdes each had three kills.

Schwieterman also shared a team-best mark in digs with Jackie Wenning with seven. Ciera Rammel put up 11 assists, and Westgerdes notched a pair of blocks.

Erica McIntire came up with 11 digs and a pair of kills for the Patriots. Markie Runyon had five digs and one block.

Jamie Walker was the only Patriot player to score more than one point, finishing with seven. Miranda Tingley notched one assist, and Erica Clark had three kills.[[In-content Ad]]