No. 1 team

COLDWATER - The Fort Recovery volleyball team's motto this season is "one team."

If the Indians keep winning MAC games, they may consider changing it to No. 1 team.

Fort Recovery posted a 25-21, 25-22, 25-22 sweep of Coldwater on Thursday night at the Palace in a battle of conference co-leaders. The Indians improved to 5-0. The Cavaliers fell to 4-1 and into a four-way tie for second with St. Henry, New Bremen and Marion Local.

Tribe coach Chelsea Kahlig said her team's motto is about having a we-before-me mentality, and they've bought into it.

"Tonight, they just echoed our whole motto and what we're trying to become," Kahlig said.

Kahlig was up watching film on Coldwater a 2 a.m. Thursday morning, she said. The team also spent Thursday's lunch period studying film. The Indians followed with one of their best games of the season.

"We had a game plan, and we followed through with it," Kahlig said. "I think playing that really hard-nosed game at New Knoxville on Tuesday really prepared us and got us ready for this game."

The Cavaliers did not play one of their best games of the season - committing 16 service errors as their 11-game winning streak came to a halt. They were on the opposite side of a sweep after having won their previous seven in the same fashion.

"That's a lot of missed serves when you lose a match 22, 22, 21," Coldwater coach Nikki Etzler said. "But credit to Fort Recovery. I think they played well tonight. They're doing some good things on their side."

Fort Recovery and Coldwater had ties at five stops early in the opening set. When it was knotted at 8-all, the Indians went to work. Brooke Kahlig, Marissa Gaerke and Paige Fortkamp all had kills as part of a 4-0 run, and the Indians didn't let the score get much closer.

Coldwater committed too many service and hitting errors during the set. And Paige Jutte was too much to handle from the opposite side of the net - collecting three kills and a couple blocks as Fort's lead grew to 19-12. The Cavs made a push to get deficit to three late, but a Fortkamp spike hit hardwood on the Cavalier side for a 25-21 win.

Set two had back-and-forth play early. Again, though, Fort made a mini-run near the middle and never relinquished its lead. Coldwater's once five-point deficit was decreased to one at 21-20 on Lauren Gilliland's third ace of the set. But Olivia Patch followed with a block, Coldwater then had back-to-back errors and a Whitley Rammel stuff made the Indians a 25-22 victor.

Coldwater had a combined 24 hitting and service errors through two sets - including seven from behind the service line in the opener.

"We try to spot serve. We try to be aggressive," said Etzler, whose team had five service errors and three hitting in the final set, too. "I think we had eight aces to 16 misses. That's not a good ratio. We practice serving a lot and being intentional about how you're going to serve and where you're serving and why you're serving where you're serving. We just have to get to work on it again."

Fort Recovery charged out to a 5-2 lead in set three behind a couple kills each from Fortkamp and Gaerke. Coldwater came back to level the score at 8 on an ace by Alaina Steinke. She hit into the net on her next serve, Fortkamp followed with a kill and Chloe Showalter added an ace. Later, back-to-back kills by Coldwater's Jenna Leugers tied the score at 18-apiece. After Jutte and Katie Alig traded kills, Coldwater took its first - and only - lead thanks to a Fort Recovery infraction.

Then right on cue, Coldwater committed one final service error to tie it up. Hope Wendel dropped in an ace and Rammel collected another block. The score was tied at 22-all after a Fort Recovery hitting error, but the Indians scored three straight points with kills from Rammel and Fortkamp and a Cavalier hitting error mixed in.

"We play with such a team effort, and I think every unit was pretty strong tonight," Kahlig said. "Defensively, we were focused on stopping Lauren and I think we did do that. She's an amazing player. They had some other girls step up. … I think our gas was starting to run low in that third set, but we found a way to get the win. I'm really proud of them."

Stat leaders for the Indians (15-1) were Olivia Patch (three kills, six blocks), Brooke Kahlig (11 digs), Jutte (eight kills, two blocks), Showalter (12 assists, 10 digs, two aces), Rammel (five kills, three blocks), Fortkamp (10 kills, nine digs, two blocks), Kierra Wendel (12 digs) and Hope Wendel (12 assists, two aces).

Leading the Cavaliers were Gilliland (eight kills, four aces, six digs), Leugers (eight kills) and Annelise Harlamert (26 assists, six digs).

After Thursday's game, Etzler was already eager to get back in the gym to prepare for a tough road ahead.

"It's kind of hard for any team in the MAC to go undefeated," said Etzler, whose bunch hosts Celina on Tuesday and then visits New Knoxville two days later. "… We're kind of in the gauntlet right now, you know, next week we get New Knoxville and they're a really tough team. We've still got Versailles and Marion left. People just have to be really good every night to get a win."

Kahlig was singing the same tune as her team gets ready to embark on an upcoming schedule that is loaded with state-ranked teams. The Indians are trying to win their first MAC title since 1989.

"Six of the last seven teams we play, counting Coldwater, are state ranked," said Kahlig, whose team plays at home against Marion Local next Thursday. "We have Loramie coming up. That'll be a good match. I love the competitive non-league games. That's going to prepare us for what's ahead."