Rough start ends season

KALIDA, Ohio — The Indians didn’t start very well in each set Wednesday.
And when the Tribe was able to get within striking distance, the Redskins shrugged off the threat and took control.
Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team lost in the Kalida District semifinal on Wendesday, 25-19, 25-17, 25-9, to the St. Henry Redskins, the top-ranked team in Division III.
“When you start out the way we did, it’s hard to recover against the No. 1 team in Division III,” said FRHS coach Chelsea Rogers, whose team ends its season 11-14 after winning the program’s first sectional title in six years.
St. Henry coach Diana Kramer said that her team played well enough at times, but it was the end of the match she was pleased with the most.
“We had our moments tonight,” said Kramer, whose team plays Midwest Athletic Conference rival Coldwater in the district championship at 6 p.m. Saturday. The No. 2 Cavaliers beat Findlay Liberty-Benton 25-18, 25-21, 25-13 in the second semifinal Wednesday at Kalida. “We played good at moments and we struggled at moments, but credit Fort Recovery. They’re a great team.
“They have a great front row and (Kendra) Siefring is one of the best attackers in our league and in the state of Ohio, and she made us pay a couple times … I told them it’s not how you start but how you finish, and we finished on a really, really strong note.”
St. Henry (24-0) limited Siefring, holding the first-team All-MAC and all-district player to just five kills. The Redskins’ defense also disrupted Siefring and the rest of the Indians’ offense.
“I think we were just thinking too much,” Rogers said. “When they are putting up big blocks we were making errors. We were thinking too much and not just playing.”
Fort Recovery had seven offensive miscues in the first set — it had 21 total for the match — but was still able to rally. Trailing 14-10, Rogers called a timeout following a four-point St. Henry run. The Indians scored seven of the next 10 points, including back-to-back aces from Alexis Bubp, to tie the score at 17.
Consecutive kills from St. Henry’s Olivia Niekamp — she finished with seven — and an ace from Claudia Heitkamp put the Redskins back on top, and the Tribe only scored two more points.
In the second and third sets, the Indians again fell behind early. They trailed 8-1 in the second set before putting together a pair of 4-0 runs to get within one, 11-10. But then the St. Henry offense started to take over.
The Redskins used a 7-1 run for an 18-11 advantage. They were able to use a mix of tips, roll shots and simply hitting through the Fort Recovery defense, as it was often times caught out of position.
“We had a hard time getting our blocks set,” Rogers said. “Defensively we worked on rotational. We haven’t ran rotational all year, we kind of switched to that late and we just had a hard time getting to our spots defensively.
“If you don’t stay aggressive against St. Henry — if you don’t serve aggressive and keep the pace up — it’s going to come back at you.”
Devin Post led the Indians with six kills. Kirsten Jutte and Morgan Lennartz both had two, and Jutte tallied 11 assists. Lennartz also had a pair of blocks.
“They served aggressive and they put pressure on us, and we were able to respond to that pressure,” Kramer said.
Rogers noted the experience of St. Henry — it has a half dozen seniors, whereas the Indians only have six upperclassmen total — was the major difference.
“They’ve built for this year,” she said. “We’re young and we’re in the process of that. There is a lot of hope and a lot of good things to come.
“It stinks losing the three seniors (Jutte, Lennartz and Kendra Seifring). They’re going to be missed next year.”