It's time for the girls to succeed

First it was the baseball team, “First time in six decades …”
Then it was the football players, “For the first time in school history …”
Now, it’s the girls’ turn.
Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team has been on a tear lately.
On Tuesday, the Indians defeated a strong, though depleted, South Adams squad at Fort Site Fieldhouse. The Starfires were without one of their top hitters in Addie Wanner, who was nursing a sore back. The Tribe’s win over the Starfires was their fourth straight victory, and it pushed its record to 9-1 on the year.
It’s the best start the Indians have had in more than a decade.
“They finally got a taste of what winning feels like and it’s been a really long time, not just for these girls but the school in general,” said FRHS coach Chelsea Rogers, who is in her third year leading the Indians. “Our confidence is there and that’s what we’ve been missing.”
A couple of those wins have been against quality teams, too.
First, a home defeat of Jay County, their first win over the Patriots in three years. Then, a Midwest Athletic Conference win over St. John’s.
The Indians opened the year with five straight wins, and that streak was snapped with a loss to Old Fort (13-25, 25-18, 18-25) at the Spencerville Invitational on Sept. 3.
Five days later Fort Recovery did something it hadn’t done in almost a decade — beat St. Henry. The Indians split the first two sets (25-17, 17-25) with the Redskins, who are defending a MAC title and coming off a year during which they lost in the Division III state championship.
Then the Tribe won the next two sets 25-19, 25-11 to earn the team’s first victory over St. Henry since 2006.
“That was a big team win for us,” said junior Carley Stone, who is a crucial piece to the Tribe both at the net and on defense. “We haven’t beaten them in a few years so that shows how strong we are this year compared to past years.
“St. Henry is a really good team and that just showed us what we’re capable of doing in the MAC.”

Speaking of the MAC, the Indians — they finished 14th in the most recent Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association poll voting for Division III — have as many wins in the conference this year as they did in the previous three combined. That includes a winless MAC slate last season.
Rogers said at the beginning of the year she was confident in the successful summer the girls put together, and noted that working to finish toward the top of the conference this season was one of their main goals.
“We’ve always been at the bottom (of the MAC) and our goal is to push to be in the mid, toward the top of the pack,” she said in early August. The Indians’ only conference championship came in 1989. “I think the three years I’ve been here we’ve gotten better.”
The first challenge for the Indians was St. Henry, and the Tribe took care of the then-No. 2 team in the state with relative ease. The Redskins fell to No. 4 this week.
The next test will be today when the Indians travel to take on junior Paige Jones, the favorite to win MAC Player of the Year, and the Division III No. 8 New Bremen Cardinals.
But like against St. Henry, the Indians aren’t going to back away from a challenge. Fort Recovery has used a combined effort on the court to get to this point, a tactic it didn’t have the luxury of doing in previous years.
Last year, the Tribe offense went through Kendra Siefring, a first-team all-conference player who is now at Ohio Dominican in Columbus. The year before, it was her and Cassidy Rammel, who is now at University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne.
Sure, Stone is the focal point this year, as she leads the team with 123 kills, a total that is good enough for fourth in the conference. But in addition to the junior, Fort Recovery has freshman Paige Jutte (47 kills), senior Devin Post (41), sophomore Cassy Martin (38) and sophomore Brooke Gaerke (37) who can all swing.
Defensive specialists Alexis Bubp (108 digs) and Kiah Wendel (103) are 12th and 14th respectively in the conference. Wendel’s 34 aces also ranks second. In terms of blocks Gaerke is second with 40 and Martin is fourth with 35. Madi Rammel’s 225 assists ranks fifth in the league.
That gives the Indians more weapons at almost every spot, much different than years past.
“We’re finally being able to spread (the ball) across the net,” Rogers said.
And if that trend continues, the Indians may indeed find themselves near the middle — if not the top — of the MAC.