High-level volleyball

VAN WERT - St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck was still catching her breath after a thrilling, five-set victory over Marion Local in the Division IV district semifinal when asked if she expected more of the same on Thursday.

"Absolutely," Rosenbeck said without hesitation. "It's going to be the same fight on Thursday."

Fans witnessed eight sets of high-stakes, high-level volleyball on Monday as four of the top-five teams in the state ascended on the Cougar Den.

The top-ranked Redskins trailed the fifth-ranked Flyers 12-8 in the fifth set and then rallied to score the final seven points to secure the win.

Third-ranked New Bremen's sweep of second-ranked Fort Recovery in the nightcap sets up a rematch of last year's district title game with St. Henry. The Cardinals won that contest on their way to the state championship.

St. Henry 3,
Marion Local 2
(26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-12)

St. Henry was on the ropes in the fifth set.

The Redskins got off the ropes and delivered the knockout blow.

Carleigh Deitsch was behind the service line, while Addy Vaughn and Hannah Bruns supplied three kills each as part of a 7-0 run that gave the Redskins a 15-12 win.

"We had multiple times where we could have given up and called it a game, but our girls just found a way to fight back," Rosenbeck said. "Addy Vaughn put down some big balls that kind of gave us some momentum. Carleigh went on that service run. Volleyball's a game of momentum, and all of a sudden it swung our way at the right time."

The Flyers fought back from a 2 sets to 1 deficit to nearly knock off the top-seeded team in the district. It was a big turnaround from the regular-season meeting between the teams. The Redskins had swept the Flyers the first time around.

"You never like losing in the tournament, but we showed a lot of improvement from losing to St. Henry in three games during the regular season to losing in five during the tournament," Marion Local coach Erica Schulze said. "This team pushed to get better every game, and we came up a little bit short.

"It's a shame that that game has to happen in the district semis," Schulze added. "That was a good, hard-fought battle. Credit to St. Henry for coming back in that fifth set when we had the lead."

The opening set featured 12 ties and five lead changes. St. Henry's biggest lead was four points and Marion's was three. The Redskins led 18-15 before the Flyers went on a 6-0 run, taking the lead after an ace by Carrie Fesenmyer and a kill by Alana Pohlman, one of her five in the set. But Marion - which had played a rather clean set up to that point - committed three straight hitting errors, and a Hannah Bruns kill returned the lead to St. Henry at 23-22. Aubrey Thobe and Olivia Winner exchanged kills in the next two volleys to keep the score tied, but Addy Vaughn followed with a spike and then Marion was whistled for a net violation to give the Redskins a 26-24 win.

St. Henry scored the first four points of the second set, but Marion Local took over from there. The Flyers had the Redskins out of system and out of sorts for the majority of the frame. The score was tied for the first time at 8-all, and Marion ended with a 17-9 run. Natalie Rethman had two dump-kills during the run and added an ace to end the set.

The Redskins took command at the midway point of the third set. The score was tied at 8-all and then St. Henry went on an 7-2 run, with a kill and a block by Addy Vaughn on consecutive sequences putting the Redskins in front 15-10. Marion Local answered back later, though, with a 5-0 run. Kelsey Koenig's ace pulled the Flyers' deficit to 20-18. St. Henry outscored Marion 5-4 the rest of the way, ending the set in front 25-22.

Marion opened fourth set with a 5-0 run. Addy Vaughn helped the Redskins keep pace, though, with three kills and an ace as the teams played to 9-all draw. The Flyers outscored the Redskins 11-6 following that to take a 20-15 lead.

Led by the play at the net by Nora Vaughn, Bruns and Ashley Siefring, the Redskins countered with a 6-1 run. The score was tied at 21, 22, 23, 24 and one last time at 25 on a kill by Addy Vaughn. But Thobe and Rethman had kills to supply Marion with the final two points.

Addy Vaughn had a match-high 19 kills to go along with 30 assists and 14 digs. Bruns had 18 kills and 20 digs and Siefring contributed 13 kills. Deitsch had 32 assists, 22 digs and four aces. Marlee Vaughn tallied 22 digs.

Fesenmyer had a team-high 12 kills and 31 digs for Marion. Homan tallied 11 kills and eight blocks, Pohlman finished with nine kills and seven blocks. Thobe added nine kills, Rachel Partington had 27 digs, Rethman totaled 17 digs and Koenig led the way with five aces.

New Bremen 3,
Fort Recovery 0
(25-20, 25-21, 25-21)

Fort Recovery swept New Bremen not too long ago.

The Cardinals flipped the script this time around.

All three sets were close, but the Cardinals did a better job of finishing in each as they advanced to the district final for a third straight season.

"It's all about serving and passing - and we served really, really well," New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said. "We made a couple of adjustments in serve receive. It allowed our players to be in a better position to not only pass but also attack."

The opening set had eight ties, and Fort Recovery held the lead most of the way. Ashton Heitkamp gave the Cardinals a 15-14 advantage with her third kill of the set. Heitkamp had another kill later, Rachel Kremer and Josie Reinhart also spiked down points and Taylor Paul added an ace as they took the set.

Hannah Kanpke served the Indians to a 6-0 lead in the second set. Knapke had an ace during the run, and Cassy Martin tallied a pair of kills. But Macy Puthoff followed with a couple of aces for the Cardinals, who closed the gap fast. The Indians again led for the majority of the set, but they couldn't quite it off. Leading 20-18 after a Chloe Showalter ace, the Indians were outscored 7-1. They committed three hitting errors in that time, and Heitkamp finished the job for New Bremen with an emphatic spike.

The third set was tied 10 times up to 14-even. Then Kremer went behind the service line and served up four points. Paul, Puthoff, Heitkamp were on the attack at the net the rest of the way to help New Bremen close the match.

"They were the aggressor," Fort Recovery coach Chelsea Kahlig said. "They served aggressive. I thought when we played them the first time around, we were the aggressor on the serve. I think when we served aggressively, they kind of took off theirs and we were able to pass the ball. I just felt like tonight was the complete opposite. We were serving too easy and our serve receive lacked because of it. They just got confident and they were swinging away."

Paul led Bremen's balanced attack with 10 kills. Heitkamp and Kremer both had seven kills, while while Claire Pape and Macy Puthoff added five spikes each. Blake Snider and Madison Pape both tallied eight digs and Abbi Thieman dished out 23 assists.

Martin totaled 10 kills and four blocks. Paige Fortkamp finished with eight kills, Brooke Gaerke had seven kills and four blocks, Madison Rammel tallied 24 assists and eight digs and Knapke had 14 digs.