Wednesday, October 27th, 2021
All-MAC battle
St. Henry survives Marion Local; Fort rolls past Lancers
By Tom Haines
Photo by Dan Melograna/The Daily Standard
St. Henry's Lydia Werling (7) blocks Marion Local's Lindsey Koenig's (19) shot during Tuesday's Division IV district volleyball semifinal at Van Wert High School.
VAN WERT - St. Henry had to battle through five sets with Marion Local in Van Wert while Fort Recovery waltzed past Lincolnview, but the Redskins and Indians both won their Division IV volleyball district semifinals in Van Wert on Tuesday.
St. Henry came away with a 28-30, 25-14, 20-25, 25-21, 16-14 win over the Flyers in the first game before the Indians swept the Lancers 25-20, 25-19, 25-15.
The two Midwest Athletic Conference teams will meet in the district final in Van Wert on Thursday.
St. Henry 3, Marion Local 2
The Redskins went on a 5-1 run with the fourth set tied 20-20 to force a fifth, then held a 12-8 lead in the fifth before a sudden slump nearly ended their season. Three straight St. Henry errors helped the Flyers tie it at 13, and Nicole Franck hit a shot that was deflected right to give Marion match point.
"(I told them) just to stick with it and play with grit, and I think we did," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "There were a lot of times I feel like we could've stopped playing and let down, and we found a way. I'm so proud of how the girls responded and pulled through to find a way to win this game."
Brianna Siefring fired a shot into the Marion block that fell straight to the floor, tying the set at 14, and Franck's next shot went long to push the Redskins to match point. Reagan Kremer took a shot on the next point that landed at the feet of the line judge just outside the back right corner, and the flag went up to spark the St. Henry celebration.
"They made a couple mistakes, kept us in the game earlier on because we were so inexperienced, and then we caught up a little bit," Marion coach Anthony Chappel said. "We knew they could only get so much better, because they're already really good. We knew we had to start peaking, and we did at the right time. Knew it was going to be a great battle."
The Flyers also suffered from two errant calls, including a seemingly premature whistle for four hits with St. Henry leading 12-11. The more egregious error came with the set tied at two, with Chloe Ronnebaum's shot ruled long despite falling a foot or two inside the line.
If either of those points had gone Marion's way, the Flyers would've won the set 15-13 and moved on to the district final.
"They didn't see it was the most common (explanation), or somebody was in the way and they couldn't call it," Chappel said. "Maybe we were looking at the wrong lines, maybe that's on us. I don't know what happened. We'll just have to teach our players and coaches to watch a different game, I guess."
Marion won a tight first set after fighting back from a small deficit to tie the game at 18. After three more ties, St. Henry took a 23-21 lead before Nora Eckstein and Franck got kills to even it up again.
A net violation gave the Flyers set point, but Siefring got a kill to tie it at 24, and the back-and-forth began anew. Marion reached set point five more times, including twice on St. Henry service errors, but couldn't finish it until Stella Huelsman closed out a long point with a shot to the back right to secure the 30-28 win.
"A tight game at the end was usually our Achilles heel this year, because that comes with maturity," Chappel said. "So we got a lot of reps at it, it goes back to that. We at no point wavered on confidence or aggressiveness, and that's what kept us in there.
The Flyers got their other win in the third after an eight-point service run by Olivia Winner gave Marion an 18-13 lead. St. Henry was able to cut the lead to 21-20, but Ronnebaum answered with two kills and a block before a Redskins receiving error closed it out.
But St. Henry had the most dominant win of the night in the second. With the set tied at 12, Grace Lange served up 12 straight points, forcing Chappel to burn his timeouts as the set slipped out of reach.
"Our serving wasn't the best tonight, but we continued to serve aggressive and we got a few points there by getting them out of system," Rosenbeck said.
In the fourth, Marion fought back from an 18-14 deficit, with a kill by Kremer cutting St. Henry's lead to one and a hitting error tying it at 20. But Siefring responded with a kill and Lange served up four more points to give the Redskins set point. Ronnebaum got a kill before Wendel hit a shot from the right to force the fifth set.
"We knew they were going to bring their best game, and it was an intense match from beginning to end," Rosenbeck said. "No team ever gave up, and I felt like it was head-to-head the whole night."
Siefring finished with a match-high 19 kills, while Lange added 20 digs and seven aces. Lydia Werling finished with 40 assists.
Lindsey Koenig led the Flyers with 12 kills, while Nora Eckstein notched seven kills and six aces. Lydia Eifert turned in 22 digs.
Fort Recovery 3,
Lincolnview 0
A combination of Lancers errors and Indians excellence limited the drama in the nightcap, as Lincolnview never took control of the match for more than a short stretch.
"I don't know if people saw it, but we had moments of frustration for our athletes, and they did not let it affect their play," Indians coach Travis Guggnebiller said. "They just kept fighting and fought through those, and they were able to step up in so many ways, whether it was a block or a serve or finally getting in a rhythm with their kills."
Lincolnview made a late run in the first set, cutting Indians leads of 19-11 and 21-16 to 22-18 to force Guggenbiller to call timeout.
The next Lancers serve went long and another error gave the Indians set point before Mara Pearson finished it off with a kill to the back right.
"We controlled that whole first game from start to finish, we just had a lot of errors there," Guggenbiller said. "So we just had to stay focused and confident in our overall scheme of things. We wanted to serve aggressively, but make sure we stayed under control."
The two teams tied seven times in the second set before a pair of Fort Recovery errors gave Lincolnview a three-point lead. But again the Lancers served long and Whitley Rammel tied it up with a kill and a block before Teigen Fortkamp tipped a shot home to make it 14-13.
The Indians never lost the lead again. Lincolnview got within two at 17-15 before Rammel's three-point service run added a little cushion. Mara Pearson got a kill to give Fort Recovery set point before Zadria King's shot down the left line sailed long to finish it off.
"I remember calling timeout around 13-10, and I made the comment, 'The team we need out here is just having fun, not letting our frustration take over,' " Guggenbiller said. "They had some big blocks, so I said, 'Just go out and have some fun.' "
Fort Recovery wasted no time in the third, taking a 7-1 lead on service runs by Grace Guggenbiller and Lilie Leuthold. Another three-point run by Rammel gave the Indians a 12-4 lead, and Lincolnview never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Bowersock mishandled Fortkamp's serve to give the Indians match point and Marissa Gaerke sealed it with a kill.
Gaerke finished with 12 kills. Faith Wendel added 13 assists, while Guggenbiller and Leuthold each notched four aces.
Photo by Dan Melograna/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Marissa Gaerke (2) hits a kill against Lincolnview during the Division IV district volleyball semifinal at Van Wert High School.
Photo by Dan Melograna/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Nicole Franck (13) and Stella Huelsman (9) block St. Henry's Brianna Siefring's (9) shot Tuesday at Van Wert High School.
Photo by Dan Melograna/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Whitley Rammel (19) hits a drop shot against Lincolnview's McKayla Blankemeyer (19) Tuesday at Van Wert High School.
