Momentum stolen

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians came out of the gate strong.

With the exception of an Avery Albers kill, they took eight of the first nine points.

They kept that lead for most of the match, but with an 18-11 advantage, the Rangers started to take over.

After the New Knoxville Rangers came back from a seven-point deficit to take the first set, the Fort Recovery High School couldn’t capture enough momentum to win a set, falling 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 on Thursday.

“(I’m) frustrated,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I really wanted that game to make sure things are going in the right direction. I think it would have been a good moral boost for the team, but we can also take it and learn from it.”

Fort Recovery (8-7, 1-5 Midwest Athletic Conference) looked as if it would make quick work of the Rangers (6-9, 2-4 MAC) running to an 8-1 lead. During the stretch, the Indians scored on a pair of Kennedy Muhlenkamp kills, a kill from Bridget Homan and Cameron Muhlenkamp, a Karlie Niekamp block, a Cameron Muhlenkamp ace and two NKHS hitting errors.

Fort Recovery had its largest lead at 15-7 after a Cameron Muhlenkamp kill (she led her team with 12). Seven points later, things started to turn. A double hit by Kennedy Muhlenkamp started a 14-5 run in favor of New Knoxville, including five kills by Brynn Egbert — she led all hitters with 18 kills — and two from Albers (15 kills).

“It was not a very strong start,” said NKHS coach Madison Hoehne. “It’s very easy for players to just kind of move on to the next set and wash that one away. So the fact that we were able to fight through that challenge and adversity we saw in the beginning of the set, and then come back and win it, I think that really set the tone for us.”

The second set went back and forth until Kayla Heitkamp sent a serve into the net, followed by an Addison Albers ace and a block by Egbert and Keira Wellman gave the Rangers enough of an edge to control the set.

The teams also traded points in the fourth before FRHS got four straight on a block from Brynn Willman and Kennedy Muhlenkamp, two Cameron Muhlenkamp kills and an attack that sailed long off the hand of Egbert.

New Knoxville deleted the 18-14 disadvantage, taking eight of the next nine points before finishing off the set and the match with a sweep.

Guggenbiller said he felt his team’s struggles at the service line was the root of the problem in the match. Cameron Muhlenkamp recorded the only ace for the Indians, while the team ended with six service errors. Comparatively, the Rangers dropped in 10 aces and had six service errors.

“My No. 1 frustration of tonight's game is our serving,” Guggenbiller said. “The zones that I gave, I don’t know if we hit it 20% of the time. … We were too safe on our serves tonight. So, that’s an area we’re going to have to work on.

“You have to take the risk to take these stronger teams out. … It starts with the serve. If their middles are in the game, then your serve isn’t strong enough.”

The conservative serving ended up messing with the Indians’ attack, as the Rangers’ middle blockers managed to affect more shots. 

New Knoxville only ended with four blocks that resulted in points (Egbert led with one solo and two assisted blocks), but sent more back that forced the Indians out of system.

“When they started to block us, we started to lose faith with what we should do with the ball,” Guggenbiller said. “We just were not making the typical game changes that I would like to see. We still have to get stronger at those in game adjustments. … Just take it game-by-game and we’ll learn from it.”