Sloppy, but victorious

Travis Guggenbiller thought the Indians played sloppily.

Amy Dillon’s assessment was that the Patriots played well.

The victor in the state-line rivalry went to the squad whose coach thinks it has work to do.

Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team overcame early struggles but still managed to sweep the state-line rival Jay County Patriots on Tuesday, 25-21, 26-24, 25-21.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Guggenbiller, Fort Recovery’s coach, said candidly following his team’s third straight win to start the season. “It’s a sloppy game. It wasn’t pretty today, but we figured out a way to win so that’s one thing I’m happy about.”

Dillon, whose JCHS team falls to 1-3 on the year and has lost consecutive matches, was far from disappointed in the way her team performed despite the result.

“I told the girls I was not unhappy at all,” said Dillon, whose team was without senior outside hitter Kylie Klopfenstein for an undisclosed reason. “At any point it could have went the other way. We were close. I wish we could have at least pulled out a couple sets.”

Early on for Fort Recovery, attack and service errors helped Jay County build an 8-3 lead that eventually turned into a 16-9 advantage. But once Guggenbiller called his second timeout, the Indians started to make their comeback.

Whitley Rammel, who struggled with some of her swings, fired a kill through the Patriot block to spur a 10-4 run for the Indians. Once Jay County’s Abbie Fields registered a kill to stop a stretch of six straight FRHS points, Teigen Fortkamp and the Indians scored the final six to get the win.

The last point, however, was hard to obtain. Four consecutive attacks from the net failed to find open space, and it took a Marissa Gaerke attack from the back row to put the set away.

“We had service error after service error,” Guggenbiller said. “Error after error after error. We had a lot of errors today.

“We keep talking a lot about mental toughness in practice; staying focused and staying driven about what we want to accomplish … We were able to figure it out today. Mental toughness in practice is getting us prepared for that.”

Appearing to have its woes in the rearview, Fort Recovery jumped out to a 5-1 lead over Jay County in the second set. But the Patriots wouldn’t surrender. They fought back to take their first lead, 15-14, in a set that was tied a dozen times.

Down 22-20, Jay County jumped back ahead thanks to a pair of FRHS errors and a Madison Brunswick block on Rammel. The Patriots eventually had a set point, 24-23, but weren’t able to put it away. A Gaerke kill tied the score, and Rammel fired consecutive aces to give the Tribe the set.

“I think if we could have got that second set we probably would have had the momentum going into the third,” Dillon said. “We worked on a lot of stuff with blocking and shutting down (Rammel) and I think they did a great job of that tonight.”

Rammel, however, did finish with a match-high 14 kills while adding four blocks and three aces.

Set three saw Jay County take a 6-1 lead, but an 11-2 run later gave Fort Recovery a 12-9 advantage and it never trailed again. Refusing to back down, the Patriots used a run of four straight points — an Abbie Fields block along two Tribe attack errors and a net violation — to even the set at 21-all.

But consecutive JCHS attack mishaps, a Gaerke kill and an ace iced the match.

“Everyone I think struggled,” Guggenbiller said. Gaerke was second on the Indians with 10 kills. “Overall, they were able to figure out a way … We just have to keep working at it every day in practice.”

Aubrey Knapke paced the FRHS defense with 19 digs, and Gaerke contributed 10 digs. Fortkamp recorded 18 assists.

Madison Dirksen led Jay County with 11 kills, while Brunswick had four kills and Lauren Brewster tallied three kills. Brenna Haines racked up 17 digs for the Patriots, while Fields registered six blocks.

Despite the fact the Patriots have lost consecutive matches and travel to Selma to take on Class 2A No. 9 Wapahani on Thursday, Dillon is embracing the rough start to the season.

“I told them I would rather play teams like that all season long and lose and make us better by the end of the season,” she said. “If we can keep this momentum, (Allen County Athletic Conference and) sectional time looks pretty fun if we can continue to play teams that make us better.”



Junior varsity

Fort Recovery made it a clean sweep of Jay County with its 25-16, 25-12 victory.

The Indians’ Grace Klingshirn led the squad with seven kills, while Paige Guggenbiller chipped in five kills.

Cali Wendel racked up 13 digs, and Kennedy Muhlenkamp finished with 17 assists.

Laila Waddell paced Jay County’s offense with six kills while also adding five digs and a block. Maggie Dillon contributed six service points, nine digs and two aces. Mady Fraley posted a team-high 10 digs.