Messy win

NEW MADISON, Ohio — The Indians breezed by the Patriots of Jay County on Sept. 3.

Four days later, they took on a new group of Patriots. While the Tribe didn’t play nearly as clean in this match, it still had enough to pull out the victory.

The Fort Recovery High School volleyball team withstood the late pressure from the Tri-Village Patriots on Saturday to secure a 25-10, 25-18, 25-27, 25-18 triumph.

Following the match in which the Indians dominated the first set before slowing down, FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller had mixed feelings about his team’s performance.

“Ugh, that’s what I feel,” Guggenbiller said as an immediate reaction to the match. “I’m glad we were able to find a way to come out with a win like that.

“I’d like to see us get back to how we played against Jay County though, that’s where my frustration is right now. But, growth is not linear, so we have to take it day-by-day and learn from these mistakes.”

The Indians (5-3) didn’t make many mistakes in the first set. The set the tone early, taking the first three points on kills by Cameron Muhlenkamp and Bridget Homan — the two leaders in kills with 12 and 11, respectively — and a net violation on Emma Whaley.

The first of three mistakes in the set came on a service error by Kayla Heitkamp to give the Patriots (4-4) their first point. FRHS developed an eight-point lead at 15-7 before another mistake would happen. Whaley earned a defensive kill off of a serve receive that happened to land on the Indian’s side of the floor before Cameron Muhlenkamp had a hitting error to cut the deficit to 15-9.

The Indians absolutely dominated the rest of the set, with Tri-Village only scoring on a hitting error by Kennedy Muhlenkamp, for the 25-10 victory.

Heitkamp, the setter who had 41 assists, spread out the scoring in the opening game with Homan’s five kills leading FRHS. Cameron and Kennedy Muhlenkamp both added three, Brynn Willmann contributed two and Karlie Niekamp had one. Niekamp and Heitkamp combined for a block, and Heitkamp also had an ace during the stretch.

    FRHS sophomore Bridget Homan puts down a kill during the first set against Tri-Village on Saturday. Homan has had double-digit kills in all three matches since coach Travis Guggenbiller made a change to the lineup. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)
  

“(Heitkamp) does a really good job spreading out the court,” Cameron Muhlenkamp said. “She does a really good job of knowing who’s having a good game. If me and Bridget are having a good game, she does a good job of feeding us, or if we have a couple bad (hits) in a row, she’ll get it to the middle. … When Kayla gets that good set for me, I can get it anywhere on the floor.”

Things started to slip a little in the second set, as Fort Recovery committed nine errors and hit into the block three times. Despite the struggles, 16 Indian kills and seven Patriot errors pushed FRHS to win the game 25-18.

Tri-Village finally found an offensive groove in the third game, netting 17 of its 39 kills (43.6%) in the match.

“In that third set, we took control back in the game when we started communicating,” said Tri-Village coach Taylor Rawlings. “We found our energy and when we have good energy, it reflects in how we play. So, our hitters start putting the ball down more, our defense gets excited and everyone is involved.”

Even with the improved offense, FRHS led 24-22 late in the set with a chance to sweep. TVHS outscored the Indians 6-1 to take the 27-25 win, with the final three points coming on a block by Kenna Wilcox and Bailey Frech, and kills from Gabby Kirby — who led the Patriots with 10 — and Frech.

In between sets, Guggenbiller urged his players to bring the pace of play back up to their speed and to focus on playing their own game.

The set went back and forth until Fort Recovery led 14-12. It then rattled off six straight points to start an 11-6 run to win the match. The final three points came on a Cameron Muhlenkamp kill, a Heitkamp ace and a Homan kill.

Guggenbiller cited struggles with hesitation, watching the ball in the air as opposed to reacting, communication and a lack of aggressive serving that he wants his team to improve on from this match.

While Guggenbiller could have done without the mistakes, he did mention that proving his team could win a match while being pressured is a good sign and something to build off of.

“If you can win a game like that, it’s always something positive, because you lose that third set and even in the second and fourth games were tight,” Guggenbiller said. “So being able to pull away like that tells you that you can do it. That’s one thing I’m very proud of is that the girls did not give up. They fought hard and figured out a way to win the game.”