Serving up a loss

FORT RECOVERY — The Patriots got the drop on the Indians, forcing an early timeout.

Despite a pair of spaced out kills by Brynn Willmann the Patriots kept control, but once Kenna Dues stepped up to the service line the Indians found their groove.

An 11-point run not only gave the Indians the lead, but also the confidence and momentum they needed to take the rest of the match as well.

The Fort Recovery High School volleyball team dominated the service line and had a balanced attack to take down the Jay County Patriots 25-14, 28-26, 25-20 on Tuesday.

The Indians’ defense of home court also snapped a two-match skid.

“We’ve had two tough five-set losses and I was actually a little nervous coming into today because I watched some film on Jay County and knew they were tall, lengthy and young like us,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I knew it was going to be a battle, so I’m very proud of the way our team adjusted and adapted to handle that pressure.”

While the Patriots didn’t pull out the win, there were some positives to build on, especially considering the level of their opponent.

“It’s coming,” said JCHS coach Amy Dillon. “(We need to) keep playing teams like that. I think that’s part of it. We haven’t really seen a team of this caliber — Delta was pretty close.

“We almost need to play a set to see it and figure that out. I think we figured that out in the third set and then in the third set, I decided to play with where I thought everyone was playing the best.”

Jay County will get another big test today as it hosts Class 2A No. 1 Wapahani. Dillon noted keys for that match include getting setter Paisley Fugiett to the net and squared up, being in defensive position and eliminating tipping the ball.

The Patriots immediately put the pressure on Fort Recovery (4-2) in set No. 1 by scoring the first five points on two kills and a block by Mya Kunkler, an Elizabeth Barnett kill and an attack error by Kayla Heitkamp.

After a timeout, the teams traded four points with two kills from Willmann, an error by the sophomore and a tip kill by the Patriots’ Paisley Fugiett. A net violation on JCHS cut the Indian’s deficit to 7-3 and gave the serve to Dues.

Her first two serves resulted in aces before a pair of kills by Kennedy Muhlenkamp and errors by Hallie Schwieterman and Maria Hemmelgarn. Dues notched three more aces, broken up by a Karlie Niekamp kill to make it an 11-point run for Fort Recovery, giving it a 13-7 advantage.

“I just tried to stay confident in myself, knowing I have to take it one serve at a time and hopefully not miss,” said Dues, who finished with seven aces and a match-high 21 digs. “It’s always important to win the first ball (contact). …

“It was really big to come back and take the lead of that set. We started believing in ourselves that we were going to win this one and had the first set.”

Dues also served up a six-point run in the third set that included two aces. The Indians dominated the service line with 12 aces to Jay County’s four.

The Indians scored 12 of the final 19 points to take the first set.

Jay County started to figure things out in the second set, never trailing by more than four points and even going on its own 9-1 run to gain a 13-9 lead. JCHS also had the lead three times after the score hit 20 points, but couldn’t finish the set.

Jay County’s Maria Hemmelgarn (12) and Brenna Schmiesing (9) rise up for a block attempt on Kennedy Muhlenkamp of Fort Recovery. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

The lineup change Dillon made in the third set had Brenna Schmiesing manning the middle and Hemmelgarn working as an opposite hitter to allow Schwieterman to focus on just being an outside hitter.

Guggenbiller also made an adjustment to his lineup prior to the match to get sophomore Bridget Homan more involved in the offense. The result netted Homan a match-high 10 kills.

Overall, the Indians had a balanced attack, as Homan’s offense was supplemented by six kills apiece from Cameron Muhlenkamp, Niekamp and Willmann and five from Kennedy Muhlenkamp.

Schmiesing and Hemmelgarn led JCHS with seven each.

“Kudos to my setter,” Guggenbiller said of Heitkamp, who had 30 assists. “My setter did a great job just mixing up the court and pulled the block a lot. There was many times we were on a one-on-one block, especially on the right side, before we had a hole that we could put it through.”

He also mentioned that the communication from middle blockers Niekamp and Willmann and an emphasis on high contact from the hitters played a key role in the offensive success.

Despite being down by two sets and trailing 22-14, Jay County managed one final push in the third set to pull within two points.

The six-point run came as the result of a wakeup call from Dillon after a lineup check, something she hopes won’t have to happen again.

“I’ll be honest, they kind of surprised me a bit there at the end,” Dillon said. “When we got the lineup check, I got on them and said ‘You’re not mentally in the game if we need to have a lineup check at the varsity level.’ …

“That’s what I told them in the first set too. You’ve got to play with a calm mind and we were not calm in the first set.”