Sophomore setter steps up

PLEASANT HILL, Ohio — The Indians have been tested throughout the season as they played seven teams that are currently ranked in their respective top 10s, including two defending state champions.

But when they faced the Jets, they had a different challenge due to a last-minute injury to the starting setter.

A sophomore setter stepped up to fill the hole.

Hailey Easton ran the offense with ease in her first varsity start as No. 2 seed Fort Recovery High School’s volleyball team picked up a 25-11, 25-14, 25-16 victory over the 12th seeded Northeastern Jets in the OHSAA Division VI Southwest 3 District semifinal match on Tuesday hosted by Newton Local.

With the win, the Tribe moves on to face sixth-seeded Houston, who upset No. 3 seed Traid, in Saturday’s district championship at Fairmont at 10 a.m.

“I’m happy,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “It’s a win in the tournament. That means you’re moving on, you get a few more days and that makes me excited going into the district finals.

“I’m proud of how my girls faced the adversity they had to deal with today. Yesterday, our setter seemed perfectly fine and this morning she wakes up with a swollen knee, so we just sat her out today to keep her safe. Our JV setter did a nice job, stepping in and playing for up.

“I thought we felt some tension, but I felt like we handled it very well today.”

Fort Recovery’s starting setter, Kayden Ranly, had started the previous 23 matches, totaling 561 assists for 7.4 assists per set. Easton smoothly filled the role on Tuesday, 

“The experience was awesome,” Easton said. “The girls make such a good team. I think we played well and we came out strong.”

She managed to connect with her teammates to exemplify their strengths such as getting Alexis Grisez the ball in the middle, finding Brynn Willmann for slide kills, setting Cameron Muhlenkamp – she led FRHS with 12 kills – for hard swings across the court and placing the ball for Bridget Homan out of the back row.

“I felt like our setter-hitter connections were very there,’ said Easton, who had 12 assists on the season prior to the match. “Some of them were bad passes but otherwise it went well.”  

Despite the early tension, the Indians (12-12) developed an early lead. They were up 13-8 before rattling off nine straight points. Willmann sparked the run with a kill and then proceeded to serve the ball and continuously put the Jets (5-16) in a bind to get them out of system.

“Brynn’s actually one of our best servers,” Guggenbiller said. “It’s not an ace necessarily, but she gets them out of system. Then it’s not a great pass on their end and that allows us to set up our defense.”

Along with getting Northeastern out of system, she dropped in two aces to match Muhlenkamp and Homan for the team high.

Fort Recovery cruised through the rest of the set, finishing the match off quickly after the 9-0 run.

The second set started off closer with Northeastern even tying the Tribe at 6-6 before the Indians eventually took control with a 7-1 run.

The Jets actually took a one-point lead three different times in the third set, but Guggenbiller kept faith in his players and decided not to call a timeout. Northeastern actually used both of its timeouts in all three sets, while Guggenbiller held off and let the girls work through things themselves.

“I was nervous the whole time, but I had to keep my poise,” Guggenbiller said. “So I didn’t want to call a timeout and cause tension either. I would have called it if we needed to, but I thought, ‘These girls are handling it well. I can tell on the court I’ve got some upperclassmen starting to take some leadership roles … there’s communication, so I was like, I’m going to keep the trust in their hands.’”

The Tribe will look to play a cleaner match against Houston on Saturday. While the two teams did not face off in the regular season, Fort Recovery boasts a 6-3 record against common opponents, while the Wildcats finished 3-8 against those teams.

“Going in we know we’re going to have to be cleaner,” Guggenbiller said. “More of those points are going to have to be earned. … But I’m expecting us to come out with less tension and more excitement on Saturday.”