Making changes

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians have had an up-and-down start to the season.

They’ve found some success in the non-conference, but matches in the Midwest Athletic Conference they couldn’t break through.

When the Wildcats came to town, the Indians got a chance to exorcise some demons.

The Fort Recovery High School volleyball team came out strong in the first set to establish the tone in a 25-8, 25-22, 25-12 crushing of the Minster Wildcats on Tuesday.

“Anytime you can get a MAC win, it always feels good,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I thought we played well today. So, it’s not even just the fact that we won. It was nice to see our girls playing really well, starting with our serve and even our serve receive at that end of things.”

Prior to the win against the Wildcats (5-7, 0-4 MAC), Fort Recovery (7-5, 1-3 MAC) fell to Marion Local in five sets and Parkway in four sets, and got swept by New Bremen.

The Indians decided they had enough of those conference struggles and wasted no time jumping on Minster in the first set by taking the first six points on a pair of kills from Cameron Muhlenkamp and Karlie Niekamp each, an ace from Kayla Heitkamp and one hitting error by Ava Stueve.

Minster interrupted the run with kills from Cadence Bergman and Alyse Lamm and an ace from Brooklyn Osterloh that hit off the tape, but never managed to score consecutive points for the rest of the set.

The set eventually ended on a play that featured Cameron Muhlenkamp getting on the floor to dig out an attack Keri Heckman sent across the court, before getting up and putting down the ball past the block attempt by Lamm and Anna Kohne.

“You can tell, the way they’ve been playing, they were ready for a change and the only people that can make that change is themselves,” said Guggenbiller. “We keep talking about how we are a really good team, and we’ve got to keep learning and growth takes time. I just thought that was a great step in the right direction for us, especially with a big game coming up this Thursday (against undefeated Coldwater).”

The second set wasn’t as one-sided.

The teams traded points early in the set, leading to seven ties and two lead changes. With things knotted up at 18-18, Cameron Muhlenkamp provided a momentum-swinging kill off of a block attempt by Heckman and Lamm. A pair of errors and an ace by Brynn Willmann gave FRHS a 22-18 advantage it wouldn’t relinquish. Cameron Muhlenkamp again put the Wildcats away with a hard kill.

The sophomore hitter led the Indians with 14 kills in the match. Niekamp followed with eight, Bridget Homan had five, and Heitkamp and Willmann both added three. 

Heitamp, the setter, spread the offense around regularly — she had 25 assists — to give MHS different looks. Some of those looks included going to the big swings from Cameron Muhlenkamp, slide kills from Niekamp, Homan in the back row and even adding in some of her own quick tips over the net.

“Cameron’s moneyball was working pretty good and Karlie was hitting well too,” Heitkamp said. “So, I was just feeding them, getting them kills. I just try to mix it up. Try to get points when I can, but also give my hitters a good ball to get them a kill.”

FRHS setter Kayla Heitkamp sets a ball as Karlie Niekamp slides over during the second set on Tuesday. Heitkamp assisted hitters 25 times in the win over Minster. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Things picked back up for the Indians in the third set. Minster managed to tie at 10 points apiece, but another large run got started with a kill by Cameron Muhlenkamp. The hit was the first of 14 consecutive points for FRHS that consisted of two kills by Cameron Muhlenkamp and Niekamp, one Heitkamp kill, three aces from Willmann and five Wildcat errors.

Minster stopped the run at match point with a put down by Lamm. A hitting error from Homan out of the back row added one more Wildcat point, but Cameron Muhlenkamp finished things off from there.

Along with the strong offensive performance, the Indians had a strong defensive effort. Niekamp led the front row with a solo block and two assisted blocks (one with Cameron Muhlenkamp and another with Kennedy Muhlenkamp). In the back row, Kennedy Muhlenkamp led with 13 digs. Homan followed with eight, while Kenna Dues dug out six attacks.

“All of our hitters did a nice job today … and Cameron and Karlie were just having the time of their life out there today,” Guggenbiller said. “Kennedy Muhlenkamp, her defense today was lights out. She was picking up balls all over in that left back position and even Kenna (did well).

“It all starts on our defensive end, and they were able to get that ball nice to our setter. Our setter did a great job today. I thought she did a phenomenal job of getting that ball to our hitters, where they needed it to be.”