Aggressive start

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians were the aggressors with the ball at the service line.

The Blue Jays put up a little fight late, but by then it was against the Tribe reserves.

Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team cruised to a 25-5, 25-12, 25-21 victory against Midwest Athletic Conference rival Delphos St. John’s Blue Jays on Tuesday in the Division IV Van Wert District sectional semifinal at Fort Site Fieldhouse.

“I thought we played well overall,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I thought we served aggressively. We hit really well.

“I thought our hitting-setting connection was pretty good. I thought my middles worked really hard today; my outside, my right side, overall I thought it was a pretty good team effort today.”

Defending district champion Fort Recovery, which finished 18th in the final coaches’ poll and is the district’s No. 4 seed, advances to the sectional semifinal against No. 3 seed Crestview at approximately 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the second of two sectional title matches at Lincolnview. The other sectional final has second-seeded Lincolnview entertaining No. 6 seed Wayne Trace.

St. Johns (1-21), which lost its Sept. 2 MAC matchup in three sets, was called for a line violation on the opening serve of the match Tuesday. Then, after failing to cleanly receive Grace Guggenbiller’s serve, FRHS senior Whitley Rammel fired two of her match-high 16 kills as the Indians built a 6-0 advantage.

The Indians (12-11) recorded five aces in the set, including three from Marissa Gaerke. Rammel had her only two aces of the match during the set, and Teigen Fortkamp had another. Gaerke’s three aces were at the end of the set when she helped serve the Tribe to the final seven points.

“We’ve been practicing serving every day for like a half hour,” Guggenbiller said. “It is non-stop serving; getting in that power, getting in that routine.

“It was nice to see some of those girls step up and have a nice serving game today.”

Lilie Leuthold shared the team high of three aces with Gaerke.

A little bit of complacency by Fort Recovery allowed St. John’s to rally from a 7-3 deficit to trail 9-8 in set two.

A Blue Jay ace, a Tribe attack error and two side-outs helped St. John’s trim the margin. But kills from Mara Pearson and Leuthold aided the Indians in starting a 7-1 run, and Fort Recovery finished the set on a 16-4 run after its lead was trimmed to the single point.

“One thing we’ve been working on this year is staying consistent in our effort and staying focused in the game plan of what’s going on,” Guggenbiller said. “We came out really strong in the first set and sometimes you lose that focus a little bit in the second set. You think it’s going to be easy but it’s not.

“I think they have to remember that in order for them to get what they had in the first set they have to work hard doing that. You have to keep that mindset when you’re playing. Nothing is given to you.”

Fort Recovery had a tough time shaking St. John’s in set three as it led 10-9, but it eventually pulled away 21-13, which forced the Blue Jays into calling a timeout.

Guggenbiller used the break to take out his starters to give younger players some time on the court.

St. John’s scored eight of the next 10 points to make it 23-21.

Guggenbiller put his starters back in, and a Rammel kill and a Blue Jay bump into the net ended the match.

Pearson finished second to Rammel with five kills, while Gaerke had four kills.

Fortkamp and Rammel had two blocks apiece. Aubrey Knapke ended with seven digs, and Fortkamp set up the offense to the tune of a dozen assists.