Tribe rolls to regional

VANDALIA, Ohio — The Lions took the first point after a serve from Hailey Farmer bounced off of Kennedy Muhlenkamp’s arms.

A trio of Lion errors, a Kayla Heitkamp ace and a Cameron Muhlenkamp kill gave the Tribe a lead before points bounced back and forth.

WIth a two-point lead, middle blocker Brynn Willmann dove on the floor for a save, leading to a block by Bridget Homan.

After a kill by Heitkamp, the fire alarm halted play for nearly 25 minutes. Following the delay, Willmann and Homan dominated the Lions to take control of the set and the Indians never looked back.

After taking the first, the third seeded Fort Recovery High School volleyball team dominated the second before Kennedy Muhlenkamp gave it the lift it needed to complete the 25-15, 25-8, 25-15 sweep of the No. 1 seed Miami Valley Christian Academy Lions in the OHSAA Division VI Southwest 2 District championship on Saturday.

The victory marked the first time Fort Recovery won a district title since 2020, when it beat Marion Local prior to falling to Calvert in the regional opener. Over the past three seasons, FRHS fell in the 2021 district final, the 2022 sectional opener and in the 2023 district opener.

Fort Recovery will move on to play Anna in the regional opener at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Northmont.

“It’s great, so great,” said senior Kennedy Muhlenkamp. “We were ready for it last year, then when we didn’t get it, we were just extra hungry for it this year.”

The early run in the first set started to give the Indians (13-13) some footing, but the fire alarm went off around 8:30 p.m., forcing the teams and fans to evacuate and threatening the Tribe’s momentum.

    Brynn Willmann (9) and Kennedy Muhlenkamp of the Fort Recovery High School volleyball team get a block on an attack from Miami Valley Christian Academy’s Emily Merling during the OHSAA Division VI Southwest 2 District final at Butler on Saturday. Willmann sparked a run in the first set, while Muhlenkamp powered the third for the 25-15, 25-8, 25-15 triumph. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
  

Twenty minutes later, the building was cleared and after a short warm up, the teams got back to the court.

The Indians got right back to work.

The first point following the delay went to FRHS after Willmann reached over the net for a kill. Homan then served up back-to-back aces by picking on MVCAHS’ Vera Bell and Aralyn Schulte. Willmann secured her second kill, and Kennedy Muhlenkamp’s swing went right into a Lions blocker for another point to push the Tribe’s lead to 16-7.

“One of the things coach has us do is visualize,” said Willmann who helped power the run with Homan. “So every time I visualized what I was going to do in my head, I did it. You’ve just got to lock in mentally.”

Miami Valley Christian Academy finally got another point, but only when Homan sent a serve into the net.

The Indians quickly got three more kills after Kennedy Muhlenkamp sent a ball to the back right corner, Cameron Muhlenkamp’s attack redirected off the tape to find the floor and Willmann scored a slide kill before a hitting error capped off four consecutive points.

The Lions scored again on a block, but a service error, a hitting error and a Karlie Niekamp kill gave the Indians a 23-9 advantage after a 12-2 run following the delay.

Fort Recovery got another big lift from a middle hitter in the second set, as Niekamp scored the first three points. The Tribe was nothing short of dominant to start the set as Niekamp’s run evolved into a 14-1 run – Niekamp had two more kills in the stretch to lead to six of her match-high 11 in the set – with the only Lions point coming off a Heitkamp service error.

The Lions (20-6) never found a groove in the set, as the Indians found ways to switch up their offense between tips and hard swings to keep the defense guessing.

“They have a really great offense,” said MVCAHS coach Marianne Gibbs. “They’ve got some big swingers and can run some good plays that we haven’t seen a whole lot of in our season. We practiced all week leading up to it, but tips have been killing us all season.”

Coming off of the high-energy second set, the Indians cooled down in the third as the teams traded points. After holding a 13-12 advantage, FRHS finally took control as a pair of Niekamp kills and a Sydney Gilbert hitting error snowballed into a 11-3 Tribe run.

Over the final nine points for Fort Recovery, Kennedy Muhlenkamp came alive, putting down four kills and getting an assisted block with Willmann.

Niekamp led all attackers with 11 kills in the match, while Kennedy Muhlenkamp, Cameron Muhlenkamp and Willmann followed with nine, eight and seven successful attacks, respectively.

The Miami Valley Christian Academy offense couldn’t keep up with Fort Recovery’s 39 kills, as it only managed 13. Bell, Gilbert and Schulte all tied for a team-high three kills.

Now, the Anna Rockets are all that stand between the Tribe and its first appearance in the regional finals for the first time since 1991.

“I’m just proud of these girls,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “We’ve had a rollercoaster of a year, but our schedule gets us prepared for this. These girls came out ready to play today and I’m excited about it. …

“At the beginning of the year, we set the goal of being top four in the (Midwest Athletic Conference). And then we set the goal of winning 75% of our games and then our third goal was making it to regionals. We didn’t make the first two, so it was a lot of uphill battles. Learning and growth is not linear and it takes time. … They really got their mojo towards the end of the season and look where we are.”

Photo Gallery

Fort Recovery volleyball district championship vs. Miami Valley Christian Academy (10/26/2024)