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Fort Recovery's Kayla Heitkamp bumps the ball back toward the net at the Celina Intermediate School on Tuesday.
CELINA - Celina found a groove late in the second set, but Fort Recovery was clicking all night.
Sharp passing carried the Indians to a 25-18, 23-25, 25-16, 25-21 victory in a volleyball match at the Celina Intermediate School Tuesday to improve to 6-0 on the season.
Over the four sets, Fort Recovery racked up 27 points against 10 errors on its first shot off the serve receive.
"We've been practicing our serve receive a lot," coach Travis Guggenbiller said, "and I think what we're doing in practice is allowing our setters to make great sets because of our pass. So that was nice to see, on that end of things. We handled the ball pretty well today, and we put the ball away on that first contact."
Both teams also had to battle the heat, with the temperature at 85 degrees at the start and no air conditioning in the gym.
Fort Recovery overcame a four-point deficit early in the first set, with Cali Wendel's ace off the top of the net tying it at 8. Celina (4-4) staved off the Indians a few more times before a service error cut the lead to one, Teigen Fortkamp fired a kill to the back right to tie the set at 14 and the Bulldogs missed their first shot on the next two points to put the Indians ahead for good.
"They were passing nails," Celina coach Phil Bange said. "They were getting the ball right to their setter and able to run whatever they wanted to run, and we weren't."
Celina libero Allison Schwieterman dives to try to save a shot against Fort Recovery. Schwieterman finished with 37 digs.
Fortkamp put Fort Recovery up 13-7 with a shot in front of diving Celina libero Allison Schwieterman after a tremendous dig by Kennedy Muhlenkamp, but the Bulldogs rallied and tied it at 14 on back-to-back kills by Ava Knapke.
Kira Bange added two straight kills to put Celina in front, and after the Indians tied it up at 18, Mylee Sapp rejected two straight shots to make it 20-18. Fortkamp answered with a kill, but Sapp slammed home a kill to the back left and then spiked a shot to the left line for a three-point lead.
Fortkamp got a tip shot to make it 23-22, but Knapke landed the first shot off the serve receive for set point and Emma Harter fired an ace in front of Wendel to close out the set.
"When we won that second set, they just had a little low energy there," coach Bange said. "Our girls were fired up and believed they could win, scrapping for every point, and did a great job. But they did a good job of stealing that momentum back."
The Indians led the entire third set after opening on a 6-1 run. The Bulldogs closed within 12-11 before a lift handed the serve back to Fort Recovery, and Muhlenkamp and Megan Evers combined to serve up a 7-1 run.
Fort Recovery's Kennedy Muhlenkamp tips a shot against Celina on Tuesday.
Fortkamp notched an ace, Saige Leuthold and Karlie Niekamp combined on a block and Muhlenkamp closed out the set with a tip from the right.
"That's an area we are not the strongest at, but we've been practicing it," coach Guggenbiller said of the Indians' tips. "We felt like today's game, we had to be able to do that too. They're a really good defensive team, so we wanted to make them guess where the ball was going to be. We had to be able to mix our shots up today, and that's what we did."
Fort Recovery again erased a 6-2 deficit in the fourth, tying it at 8 and taking the lead for good on a kill by Mara Pearson off the serve receive to make it 10-9. Celina ceded the next two points on hitting errors, and Pearson added a six-point run to stretch the lead to 18-10.
The Bulldogs tried to rally in the final points, cutting a seven-point deficit at 22-15 to three when Sapp blocked back-to-back shots at set point. Fortkamp put an end to those hopes on the next point, firing a shot off the serve receive to the back line to win the match.
"We want to clean it up a little bit, don't make those unforced errors," coach Guggenbiller said. "That last set was in the 20s, and I think we had three or four errors in that that we controlled. But overall I thought it was a good game for us. We handled the adversity that we faced."
Fortkamp had 23 kills and Pearson added 10. Kayla Heitkamp had 22 assists and Muhlenkamp added 16.
Sapp finished with 13 kills and Knapke had 12 for the Bulldogs.
"Those two are our middles," coach Bange said, "and to the extent we get them the ball, they're doing their job."
Haley Kizer had 35 assists and Allison Schwieterman racked up 37 digs.
Both teams wore pink ribbons to honor 11-year-old Jersey Poff of St. Marys, who died unexpectedly earlier this week, and a moment of silence was held for her.
Fort Recovery looks to move to 2-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference Thursday when Versailles comes to Fort Site Fieldhouse. Celina hosts Shawnee for a Western Buckeye League contest.
