Indians top JCHS (10/03/07)

The Tribe has gotten its season back on track. Jay County is trying to accomplish the same goal.

All three games were close Tuesday, but the visiting Fort Recovery Indians handed the Patriots a 25-22, 25-17, 25-21 defeat in high school volleyball.

The win was the fifth in the last six matches for FRHS, which has pulled even at 9-9 on the season.

"It feels good. It's awesome," said Tribe coach Diana Rammel. "The girls are a lot happier, they're playing a lot better. They're just having fun now. They don't want to lose anymore. They're tired of losing and it shows in their performance. I'm really happy."

The pattern Tuesday was clear.

Game one was tied at 15 before Fort Recovery put together a 7-2 run to take the lead for good.

Game two was also tied at 15, and then the Indians finished on a 10-2 run.

And the Patriots had a 19-15 lead in game three, only to see another 10-2 run by the Tribe finish the match.

"You look at those 10 points and they're not all the same 10 things," said Medler of his team's problems late in games. "But we've got to finish better, and if we finish better, we win two games instead of losing two games. But that's been our bugaboo all year long. We get close, and then we end up getting beat 25-22 or 25-21."

Junior Kinsey Wenning, who finished with a match-high 12 kills, set the tone for the match in the opening game after her team fell behind 16-15. She tallied three consecutive kills to start the Tribe's 7-2 run for a 23-18 lead.

Jay County (12-15) pulled back within 23-21, but a service error gave the Indians a triple game point and they finished the game on a JCHS attack error.

The second game saw the Patriots take a 13-10 lead before losing 15 of the final 19 points. Fort Recovery pulled even at 13 on an Emily May ace, and later had a 9-1 run capped by an Anne Koesters block. Koesters also finished off the game with one of her six kills on the night.

"I think having Annie in the middle and playing like she's playing right now ... she doesn't realize how much of an impact she makes, but she does," said Rammel of the junior, who also had eight points and five blocks. "Just to be up there as an intimidating blocker (helps us). She's really come a long way in the last couple of weeks."

The third game brought more of the same as the Patriots took control with a 6-0 run for a 15-12 lead and pushed to 19-15. But a Joanna Snyder kill sparked a 10-2 Tribe run - Wenning had three more kills during the stretch - to end the evening.

In addition to the big play from Wenning and Koesters, sophomore setter Nicole Pottkotter turned in another outstanding effort. She led the Indians in assists (21), blocks (nine) and points (eight) while also turning in seven kills. Heather Schmackers had 15 digs, Beth May finished with 14 digs and Kelsey Wuebker notched five blocks.

"I thought my outside hitters played well tonight. They just hit strong," said Rammel. "And we had good blocks. That was huge. It made them have to think where they were going to hit the ball and how they were going to get it over us. That made a big difference.

"Our defense has really, really stepped up for us. I'm really excited."

Jay County put together several good runs, including 7-1 to open the match. The Patriots had a 6-2 run to their 13-10 lead in game two, and had rallies of five and six consecutive points in the third game.

But overall they had trouble sustaining the effort, especially at the end of games.

"When you don't make a pass to your setter and all we can do is throw a high ball up and they have two big blockers against us, it makes it really tough on our hitters," said Medler.

"When we have to give them easy stuff and they can run it to their setter and their setter gets it up to those bigger hitters our block has trouble slowing it down."

Libero Chelsea Grady led Jay County against the Indians with 19 digs and eight points. Kelsey Wood was second on the squad in both digs (17) and kills (seven), and Sarah Westgerdes added seven kills and five blocks.

"Kelsey Wood has been coming around rapidly," said Medler of the sophomore. "She's now in one of the primary passing spots, and she's done a very solid job. She'll make a mistake, but she comes right back with a positive play."

Shelby Rines had a team-high eight kills for the Patriots. Sarah Mescher scored nine points, and Sharon Dirksen finished with 11 assists.

Junior varsity

Fort Recovery rallied from a game-one defeat to top the Patriots 22-25, 25-11, 15-9.

The opening game was close throughout, and was tied at 15, 17 and 18 before Jay County pulled ahead. A Chelsey Leuthold kill got the Indians back within 22-21, but Laura Castillo responded with a kill of her own and Taylor Burris finished the game with a kill two points later.

However, the rest of the match belonged to Fort Recovery, which ran its record to 10-4. Holly Brunswick had a huge offensive night for the Tribe with 14 kills to go along with her two blocks.

Leuthold totaled 10 points and six kills, and Lorraine Shier had nine points and six kills. Carly Staugler finished with 15 assists, and Alyssa Brackman had 10 digs.

Liz Walker had team highs of 10 assists and eight points for the Patriots, and Burris totaled five kills and three points. Kelci Reed came up with seven digs, Castillo had six digs and Amy Alig notched five kills.

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