Fort back in final, meets MAC rival

VAN WERT, Ohio — The Indians will get the chance to defend their district title.

They’ll have to avenge a pair of losses to a conference rival if they want to repeat.

Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team made quick work of the higher-seeded Lancers in claiming a 25-20, 25-19, 25-15 victory against Lincolnview in the Division IV District semifinal on Tuesday at Van Wert’s The Den.

“My No. 1 goal today was to serve aggressively and that was the first thing we had to attack them on,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggnenbiller, the district’s No. 4 seed. “Be aggressive on the serve, be disciplined and not let that affect the outcome of the next play.

“After that, we wanted to make sure to keep everybody involved and keep our offense mixed up. Everyone knows who our big (hitters) are so we have to mix some things and change things up.”

The Indians (14-11), who finished 18th in the final coaches’ poll, advances to the district final at 6:30 p.m. Thursday against the district’s top seed and fifth-ranked St. Henry Redskins. The Redskins rallied to beat No. 5 seed Marion Local in five sets earlier Tuesday night.

Guggenbiller’s No. 1 goal was executed from the start on Tuesday against second-seeded Lincolnview (17-6). Grace Guggenbiller recorded back-to-back aces to start the night. Fort Recovery ended with six aces in the first set and only trailed once, 4-3.

Lincolnview coach JaNahn Evans called timeout with the Lancers trailing 12-9. Out of the break, the Indians scored five of the next six points, including consecutive Lilie Leuthold aces, to force Evans into stopping play one more time.

The Lancers went on a 6-2 run later in the set to cut the deficit to 22-18, but kills from Marissa Gaerke and Mara Pearson helped put the set away.

After falling behind 4-1 in set two, the Indians nabbed a 5-4 lead. But neither team was able to string together as they alternated points until it was 9-9. At one time, the Lancers scored five of six points for a 13-10 lead, forcing Guggenbiller into calling a time out. A Lancer service error, a block and kill both from Whitley Rammel and a Teigen Fortkamp kill put the Indians back on top and they never trailed the remainder of the set.

Rammel finished with 10 kills, second only to Gaerke’s 12. Fortkamp chipped in a half dozen kills.

“Keep it quick,” Guggenbiller said of the plan offensively. “That was the big thing; if we could keep it quick we could run our offense. They actually did a good job stopping us early on.

“I kept telling the girls ‘We have to keep changing it up.’ They worked hard and they just fought.”

The third set was all Fort Recovery, as the Tribe led 7-1 before Lincolnview scored consecutive points. The Indians led by as much as 16-8 until the Lancers trimmed the margin to five, 18-13. But three Rammel kills, two from Fortkamp and a kill and ace by Gaerke sent the Lancers back home to the east.

In all, the Indians finished with 13 aces, getting four apiece from Guggenbiller and Leuthold. The former also had three blocks, tipped a few and got a postgame shoutout from coach.

“People who don’t get credit; I thought Grace Guggenbiller had a really good game,” Travis Guggenbiller said. “She had a lot of blocks and a lot of block touches that maybe don’t show up in stats. She served real aggressive today.

“Lilie (Leuthold), she is the same thing … those two girls didn’t have a whole lot of points in the kill but they touched the ball a lot.”

In Thursday’s final, Fort Recovery will have to avenge two losses to St. Henry. It lost 2-1 on Sept. 4 in the Redskin Invitational, then lost 3-1 on Sept. 23 in their Midwest Athletic Conference tilt.

Guggenbiller expects another battle.

“It’s going to come down to who can make fewer mistakes,” he said. “We’re going to go out there, serve aggressively, control our serve receive — that first-ball contact — and hopefully run our offense.

“It’s going to be a great game. Two teams that are fantastic.”