Tribe falls in three

KALIDA — The Indians knew it would be a tall task to get to the district championship.

They kept up in the first set, but slowly lost energy and let things slip away in the second and third.

No. 3, second-seeded St. Henry dominated the service line as it beat the No. 11, third-seeded Fort Recovery High school volleyball team 25-20, 25-11, 25-16 in the OHSAA Division III Northwest 3 district opener on Monday night at Kalida.

“St. Henry’s a good team,” FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller said. “They took control of the service line and served aggressively and we were out of system a majority of the game.”

The Indians (17-7) were hanging with St. Henry (21-3) to start the second set. Things didn’t start to go downhill until Chloe Gels started to serve.

Gels was serving at the end of the first set when St. Henry went on a four-point run that helped seal the game. In the second, she served during a five-point run that led to a 11-4 lead. Fort Recovery would slowly battle back, but another five-point run that included two aces from Morgan Baumer cemented St. Henry’s control of the set.

“I think it was the service game,” St. Henry's coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. “We just kept getting them out of system. When we get people out of system and we're getting some easy balls, we're just able to run everyone. We can kind of spread it out and it makes it really hard for the other team’s blockers and I thought we were able to do that tonight.”

Spread around the ball it did, as Gels tallied four kills in the set while Baumer, Ellie Fullenkamp and Karlee Buscher each had three.

The third set didn’t start any better as St. Henry started on a 7-0 run including three more aces from Baumer. She finished with six aces while the rest of the team had matched her.

Fort Recovery didn’t lay down, taking six of the next seven points, with kills from Kennedy Muhlenkamp and Teigan Fortkamp, who also had a block, to cut the lead to only two points.

Two hitting errors by Fortkamp and kills from Lydia Werling and Molly Wendel put St. Henry back in the driver’s seat with a 12-6 lead. The Indians would battle alongside St. Henry but were unable to gain the lead before they lost the match.

“We just couldn't find the holes,” Fortkamp said “They have really good defense and we just couldn't get balls to hit the floor.”

Fortkamp led the Indians with eight kills in the match. Behind her were Mullenkamp, Paige Guggenbiller and Mara Pearson all with three and Karlie Niekamp with one.

Fort Recovery had a strong first set by taking advantage of 11 errors and an aggressive attack that led to three blocks, two by Saige Leuthold and one by Neikamp.

While the aggressive attack caused errors and shots to be blocked, it also fueled 13 kills and five aces, which was enough to secure the set.

“Against a team like that, you can't have a whole lot of errors, you gotta play pretty clean,” Guggenbiller said. “You hope the stars all line up, and sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.”

Fort Recovery will lose seven seniors from the team that finished fourth in the Midwest Athletic Conference. While all seven were on the team in previous years, many of them received new roles this season.

Last year, the Indians only managed an 8-15 record while going 3-6 in the MAC for seventh place and were bounced in the sectional opener. This season, they improved to have a winning record, getting back to the district tournament and were ranked in the top 10 for five out of the six weeks coaches voted.

“I'm proud of my team overall and what we have accomplished this year,” Guggenbiller said. “We adjusted, we adapted and we did what we needed to this year. We had big goals and we worked real hard for those and unfortunately came up a little short today.

“But I'm very proud overall how our team has progressed from last year to this year, and I can't ask for anything more.”

With the win, St. Henry advances to the district final against the No. 2, first-raned Coldwater Cavaliers on Wednesday.

Three of Fort Recovery’s seniors and two of St. Henry’s were recognized by the District 8 Volleyball Association on Sunday.

Fortkamp, Gels and Werling were selected to the Divisions I, II, III All-Star First Team. 

The trio will join up with Coldwater’s Morgan Blasingame, Spencer Etzler and Madison Wendel, as well as Parkway’s Paige Stephenson on the West team for the All-Star senior match. The game will be played at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, at Coldwater. Admission for the match will be $3 for adults and $2 for students.

The game will be the last for Fortkamp representing Fort Recovery before going to the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne where she will play volleyball with her sister Paige.

Mara Pearson and Cali Wendel were also recognized, being listed as honorable mentions.