October 23, 2020 at 1:39 a.m.
Indians sweep T-Birds
Fort Recovery starts slowly but tops LCC at home to win sectional title
Indians sweep T-Birds
FORT RECOVERY — The Indians were slightly off their routine.
They hadn’t played in eight days. The match started earlier than they were used to.
Those factors and others allowed the Thunderbirds to hang with the top-seeded team in the district.
Once the Tribe got into its groove, the visitors had no chance.
Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team overcame a bit of a slow start to cruise past the Lima Central Catholic Thunderbirds 25-15, 25-12, 25-13 in the Division IV Northwest District 5 sectional final Thursday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
“I think nerves were one thing,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller, whose fourth-ranked Indians move to 19-3. “We hadn’t played in over a week so I think that’s one thing. Getting back into that rhythm … it was a variety of things.”
The Indians, who claimed their fourth sectional title in the last six seasons, advance to the district semifinal at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Fort Recovery will host No. 9 and third-seeded Lincolnview in the first semifinal, while No. 4 seed and 10th-ranked St. Henry meets Midwest Athletic Conference rival Marion Local, seeded second and ranked seventh, in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
Whitley Rammel set the tone early for the Indians with a pair of kills, but an ace from No. 6 seed Lima Central Catholic’s Zoey Foster and two attack errors helped the T-Birds (12-9) to a 4-2 lead. The Indians went ahead 5-4, then fell behind 6-5 and weren’t able to get ahead again over the next four points.
But with LCC leading 8-7, Marissa Gaerke fired a kill to tie the score. Rammel, who ended with a match-high 18 kills, rifled consecutive points as the Indians finally got into their groove.
The kill from Gaerke, who only had four on the night, started a stretch of five straight Fort Recovery points and a 10-1 run that put the home team on top 17-9.
“One thing I said, in a game like today, typically we would have let the scores get a lot closer,” Guggenbiller said. “You can see we are getting better because we were able to keep the distance in the score.
“We played a very, very good, unclean game. We had a lot of balls that went in areas that we didn’t want them to go to — they weren’t clean passes or they were too far to the right. But we were able to still keep the ball alive and in the past we would have made errors so those are areas of growth that we’re making.”
Paige Fortkamp and Rammel each spiked home points in helping the Indians to a 5-1 lead in the second set. A Tribe error and a Jaylen Roehm kill aided the Thunderbirds in getting within one, 5-4, but they were never able to pull even with the Indians.
Late in the third set, Gaerke came up with one of her team-best 11 digs on a ball destined to find the corner of the court. LCC senior setter Zoey Foster pushed a ball to the back right corner toward the Tribe bench, and Gaerke, using her long frame, took four quick steps and reached out with her left arm to keep the ball from hitting the floor all the while coming into contact with the line judge.
Fortkamp finished the point by blasting one of her 15 kills.
“I thought Marissa did a fantastic job running for those deep corner balls,” Guggenbiller said. Gaerke’s only misstep on defense, literally, was when she slipped on the court in an attempt to play a T-Bird attack.
“Overall I thought she played a really good defensive game and did a nice job of reading the hitters and seeing where they were putting the ball.”
With Fort Recovery finally getting a swing of things during the match, Lima Central Catholic had no answer for any of the Tribe’s hitters — Rammel, Fortkamp, Gaerke, Grace Guggenbiller and Lilie Leuthold.
The Thunderbirds had a pair of short-lived leads early in set three, but the Indians benefitted from a service error, two attack mishaps and consecutive Faith Wendel aces to jump out front, 8-4.
They never relinquished the lead.
In a six-point run later in the set, Rammel had two kills, teamed with Tiegen Fortkamp for a block and the Indians got an ace from Kierra Wendel en route to a 15-7 advantage.
Fortkamp added two more kills the rest of the match while Rammel and Leuthold each recorded kills as well.
“Honestly when we were in system and clean (LCC) couldn’t do anything,” Guggenbiller said.
They hadn’t played in eight days. The match started earlier than they were used to.
Those factors and others allowed the Thunderbirds to hang with the top-seeded team in the district.
Once the Tribe got into its groove, the visitors had no chance.
Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team overcame a bit of a slow start to cruise past the Lima Central Catholic Thunderbirds 25-15, 25-12, 25-13 in the Division IV Northwest District 5 sectional final Thursday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
“I think nerves were one thing,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller, whose fourth-ranked Indians move to 19-3. “We hadn’t played in over a week so I think that’s one thing. Getting back into that rhythm … it was a variety of things.”
The Indians, who claimed their fourth sectional title in the last six seasons, advance to the district semifinal at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Fort Recovery will host No. 9 and third-seeded Lincolnview in the first semifinal, while No. 4 seed and 10th-ranked St. Henry meets Midwest Athletic Conference rival Marion Local, seeded second and ranked seventh, in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
Whitley Rammel set the tone early for the Indians with a pair of kills, but an ace from No. 6 seed Lima Central Catholic’s Zoey Foster and two attack errors helped the T-Birds (12-9) to a 4-2 lead. The Indians went ahead 5-4, then fell behind 6-5 and weren’t able to get ahead again over the next four points.
But with LCC leading 8-7, Marissa Gaerke fired a kill to tie the score. Rammel, who ended with a match-high 18 kills, rifled consecutive points as the Indians finally got into their groove.
The kill from Gaerke, who only had four on the night, started a stretch of five straight Fort Recovery points and a 10-1 run that put the home team on top 17-9.
“One thing I said, in a game like today, typically we would have let the scores get a lot closer,” Guggenbiller said. “You can see we are getting better because we were able to keep the distance in the score.
“We played a very, very good, unclean game. We had a lot of balls that went in areas that we didn’t want them to go to — they weren’t clean passes or they were too far to the right. But we were able to still keep the ball alive and in the past we would have made errors so those are areas of growth that we’re making.”
Paige Fortkamp and Rammel each spiked home points in helping the Indians to a 5-1 lead in the second set. A Tribe error and a Jaylen Roehm kill aided the Thunderbirds in getting within one, 5-4, but they were never able to pull even with the Indians.
Late in the third set, Gaerke came up with one of her team-best 11 digs on a ball destined to find the corner of the court. LCC senior setter Zoey Foster pushed a ball to the back right corner toward the Tribe bench, and Gaerke, using her long frame, took four quick steps and reached out with her left arm to keep the ball from hitting the floor all the while coming into contact with the line judge.
Fortkamp finished the point by blasting one of her 15 kills.
“I thought Marissa did a fantastic job running for those deep corner balls,” Guggenbiller said. Gaerke’s only misstep on defense, literally, was when she slipped on the court in an attempt to play a T-Bird attack.
“Overall I thought she played a really good defensive game and did a nice job of reading the hitters and seeing where they were putting the ball.”
With Fort Recovery finally getting a swing of things during the match, Lima Central Catholic had no answer for any of the Tribe’s hitters — Rammel, Fortkamp, Gaerke, Grace Guggenbiller and Lilie Leuthold.
The Thunderbirds had a pair of short-lived leads early in set three, but the Indians benefitted from a service error, two attack mishaps and consecutive Faith Wendel aces to jump out front, 8-4.
They never relinquished the lead.
In a six-point run later in the set, Rammel had two kills, teamed with Tiegen Fortkamp for a block and the Indians got an ace from Kierra Wendel en route to a 15-7 advantage.
Fortkamp added two more kills the rest of the match while Rammel and Leuthold each recorded kills as well.
“Honestly when we were in system and clean (LCC) couldn’t do anything,” Guggenbiller said.
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