Tribe spikers can’t put away SH in loss

VAN WERT, Ohio — Aggressive serves gave the defending champs a commanding lead.

The Indians fired eight aces over the first two sets.

That same assertiveness backfired in the third set though, and they were unable to recover.

Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team wasn’t able to put away the Redskins in a 14-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-16, 15-10 loss to St. Henry in the Division IV district championship on Thursday at The Den.

“It was challenging, obviously,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “You saw the outcome.”

St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said the key for her team in the rally was matching the Tribe’s aggressiveness. In fact, she said the word four times in her opening remarks following the win.

“I’m very proud of our girls and the grit and determination they had tonight,” she said. “They could have given up. They found a way to stay aggressive and that’s what you have to do. It’s not over until it’s over.”

St. Henry (19-6), which was the district’s top seed and is ranked fifth in the state, advances to the regional semifinal Thursday at Northmont in Clayton. Its opponent won’t be determined until Saturday.

Fort Recovery (13-12), which was the No. 5 seed, struggled from the service line in the third set, gifting St. Henry eight points on service errors.

St. Henry, which beat the Indians twice during the regular season, recorded four aces of its own. After a service error cut its lead to 7-5, three straight Tribe attacks missed the court, which helped the top seed score six of the next seven points.

Fort Recovery wasn’t able to string together consecutive points until the latter part of the set, but by then it trailed 23-14.

That’s also when St. Henry sophomore Chloe Gels started to heat up.

Gels, a 5-foot, 10-inch outside hitter, had two kills in that third set before firing a half dozen in the fourth. St. Henry led the set wire-to-wire.

Gels led St. Henry with 10 kills.

“Chloe had a heck of a (fourth set) there,” Rosenbeck said. “Chloe stayed aggressive, started putting some balls down.

“It’s a confidence thing — once one player gets some confidence the others kind of rally around that.”

It’s also what Guggenbiller said was the difference in the final three sets compared to the first two.

“Just going out there and playing confident the whole time.”

In the fifth and final set, St. Henry scored the first three points and led 7-3 before Fort Recovery nabbed six of the next eight points to even the score at 9-9. During that stretch, Teigen Fortkamp had a block and an ace, Whitley Rammel tallied a kill and SHHS committed two errors.

But Brianna Siefring put St. Henry on top with a kill. She and her teammates ended the match on a 5-1 run to win the championship.

Grace Guggenbiller, who had two aces in each of the first three sets to lead all players in that category, began the match with one that hit the tape and fell over the net. It helped the Indians jump out to a 7-2 lead.

St. Henry pulled to within four, 10-6, only to have Fort Recovery score the next nine points, including an ace and back-to-back kills from Marissa Gaerke.

Gaerke had half of her match-high 11 kills in the first set, and she also had two of the Tribe’s six aces in the opener.

The Indians again had a 7-2 lead in set two — both forced Rosenbeck timeouts — and a five-point run later in the set made it 18-10. The Redskins answered with a six-point spurt to trim the margin to just two, 21-19.

Fort Recovery opened a four-point lead only to have St. Henry get within two on two more occasions, but a Gaerke kill put away the set.

Guggenbiller started set three with another ace, and the set was tied 2-2 before the errors started to pile up and the Indians weren’t able to regain momentum.

“St. Henry is a great team, hats off to them,” Travis Guggenbiller said. “They were able to fight their way back, find momentum and come back and come up with the win there.”

The loss marked the end of the FRHS careers for Lilie Leuthold, Aubrey Knapke, Grace Guggenbiller, Gaerke and Rammel.

“The seniors have so much to be proud of,” Travis Guggenbiller said. “They are district champs, sectional champs all four years. We have so much to be proud of and keep our heads up.

“Our program is moving in the right direction.”