Pairings released for volleyball (10/10/05)

Jay County and South Adams will be taking the long road. Fort Recovery has the difficult one yet again.

Seedings for Ohio’s state volleyball tournament were released Sunday with Fort Recovery opening up against Minster. The Indiana sectional draw was held today with Jay County lining up against Elwood and South Adams opening against Heritage.

The Patriots will begin play in the Delta sectional Thursday, Oct. 20, against Elwood at 6 p.m. The other first-round match will follow with Tipton taking on Mississinewa.

The winners of Thursday’s matches will meet each other in Saturday’s semifinal round at 11 a.m. Blackford and Delta will meet in the other sectional semifinal at 1 p.m., and the championship match will be played at 7 p.m.

Jay County (5-22) has lost to Delta and Blackford this season and has not played Elwood, Tipton or Mississinewa.

For Fort Recovery two straight trips to the sectional championship match have brought two straight losses. Both of those came against the top seed and the No. 1 team in Division IV — the St. Henry Redskins.

This season the Tribe volleyball team would not meet the Redskins until the district semifinals, but it will still need to beat the top seed in the New Bremen sectional to get there.

This year’s No. 1 seed went to the New Knoxville Rangers (16-2), which is ranked sixth in Division IV.

No. 18 Fort Recovery (12-7) will open sectional play against Minster (9-8) in semifinal action Saturday, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m. at New Bremen. The winner will move on the face New Knoxville for the sectional title Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 6:15 p.m.

In the other half of the New Bremen bracket No. 7 Marion Local (15-4) and New Bremen (7-12) will meet in semifinal action following the Fort Recovery/Minster match Oct. 22. The winner will play second-seeded and No. 4 St. Henry (15-5) in the second sectional championship match Oct. 25.

The two sectional champions will play in the district semifinal round Thursday, Oct. 27.

Fort Recovery has played three of the five teams in the New Bremen tournament already this season. It defeated Minster 25-18, 14-25, 26-24, 19-25, 15-9, but lost to New Knoxville 22-25, 25-22, 25-18, 22-25, 15-10 and Marion Local 25-15, 25-16, 25-17.

It will play the other two teams at home this week as it hosts St. Henry Tuesday and New Bremen Thursday.

South Adams will play its first sectional match at Adams Central Thursday, Oct. 20. It will take on Heritage in the second match of the evening, beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Woodlan and Fort Wayne Harding will meet in the first match Oct. 20 at 6 p.m.

The South Adams/Heritage and Woodlan/Harding winners will meet in the first semifinal match Saturday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m. Bluffton and Adams Central will follow in the second sectional semifinal battle at approximately 12:30 p.m.

The championship will be held two hours after the conclusion of the Bluffton/Adams Central semifinal match.

The Starfires’ only win against a sectional opponent this year came against Bluffton. They have lost to Heritage, Adams Central and Woodlan, and have not played Harding.[[In-content Ad]]