Dominant district opener

PLEASANT HILL, Ohio — Riverside led exactly once.

The Pirates were up 2-1 in the second set.

Cue a nine-point run for the Indians.

It was the longest of the match for the second-seeded Fort Recovery High School volleyball team, which blistered No. 15 seed Riverside 25-12, 25-7, 25-9 in Wednesday’s Division VI Southwest District quarterfinal at Newton.

“I was happy,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I thought we played pretty strong across the board today. Our servers did well. 

“What I was happy with — we stayed disciplined with what we needed to stay disciplined in. … So that was nice to see. 

“I thought overall, we moved well. We made good decisions on the court.”

The Indians advance to play either No. 11 seed Northeastern or No. 12 seed Franklin Monroe in the district semifinal at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Newton.

After Fort Recovery (11-12) dominated the opening set Wednesday, the Pirates (2-21) gave up the first point of the second before going up 2-1 on a Valerie Knight kill and a double-hit.

The advantage did not last long.

Brynn Willmann, who also delivered the first point of the set, notched a kill to even the score and then stepped behind the service line. Riverside was unable to return her first two offerings, and then Bridget Homan, Alexis Grisez and Cameron Muhlenkamp (two) ripped off four consecutive kills for an 8-1 advantage that triggered a timeout.

Out of the break, Fort Recovery tacked on two more points — the last came on another Willmann ace — for a 10-2 lead.

It was one of 15 aces on the night for the Indians, who got five from Willmann, four from Kenna Dues and three from Muhlenkamp. They were especially effective with topspin serves.

“Some teams struggle with that,” said Willmann. “And (Guggenbiller) has really pushed us to become more aggressive with our serves.”

Fort Recovery was dominant throughout. It had nine runs of four points or more while never letting the Pirates gain any momentum. They scored consecutive points just three times.

In addition to the aces, the Indians owned the net as Muhlenkamp’s eight kills matched the total for the entire Riverside squad. Willmann and Homan added five kills apiece and Grisez notched three, while setter Kayden Ranly put up 18 assists.

Guggenbiller was just as happy with the way his team performed when things weren’t going right.

The opening point of the third set was an example, as the Indians twice chased down attacks and scrambled off the court to keep the ball alive. On the second opportunity, they managed to pop the ball up just inside the attack line on the left side, where Dues stepped under it and delivered a cross-court kill.

The next point — a Cameron Muhlenkamp kill — also came on a scramble play.

“That was what we actually talked about in between the sets,” said Guggenbiller, who also got six digs from libero Kayla Gaerke and three blocks from Willmann. “I said, ‘One area I want to see us getting better at is our out of system.’ We can play our out of system too safe. In a game like today, we can really challenge ourselves on that. We’ve got to make a risk — high risk, high reward kind of concept. You’re not going to get better unless you try those.”

The Indians were so in control in the third set — they scored the first six points and rolled out to a 16-2 lead — that they cleared the bench, first bringing in Haley Easton, then Hope Evers, Trinity Rammel and Kinlee Kremer, and then Addy Brunswick. (Gaerke, a freshman, stayed on the court with them.)

Kremer lit up the crowd when she smacked a kill for the 21st point, and Brunswick got a tip for No. 22. Evers eventually finished off the match as she blasted a kill through the middle of the Riverside defense.

“It was really cool, to be able to put it away to the end,” said Evers. “I think it's really cool to be able to step in and play like that.”

A win Tuesday would send the Indians to the district championship match on Saturday, Oct. 25, at Fairmont, with a chance to earn a second consecutive regional berth.

Guggenbiller plans to use the almost a week off between matches to continue to work on improving when his team is not able to run its offense, mixing up serves and increasing communication.

“Out of system is an area I want to improve on a lot,” he said. “We do a nice job at attacking a ball out of system — it's not like we have a lot of errors — but we're not real effective. We’re keeping the other team in system. …

“We’ve got to do a better job at seeing the court and making those adjustments in the game … and keep improving in that aspect of the game.”