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Fort Recovery's Saige Leuthold goes up to block a shot by St. Henry's Chloe Gels.
FORT RECOVERY - After St. Henry, the third-ranked team in Division III, controlled the first two sets, No. 8 Fort Recovery made a stand in set three.
The Indians rallied from an early deficit to force extra points before the Redskins closed out a 25-16, 25-12, 28-26 win in a Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball match at Fort Site Fieldhouse on Thursday.
"We knew coming in it was going to be a fight from the beginning," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said. "So I was proud of how our girls came in pretty forced, driven, and ready to play from the beginning."
With the win, St. Henry (12-2, 5-1 MAC) keeps pace with New Bremen and Coldwater at the top of the MAC, with Fort Recovery (9-3, 4-2 MAC) now a game behind.
Trailing 2-0 in the match, Fort Recovery dropped behind 10-5 before starting a slow comeback. A pair of errors got them within one at 12-11 before Chloe Gels got a kill off the block to pad the margin again.
St. Henry's Lydia Werling retreats to bump the ball against Fort Recovery at Fort Site Fieldhouse on Thursday.
Lydia Werling staved the Indians off at 14-13, and the next two times they got within a point, Karlee Buschur converted the first ball sideout to preserve the lead. Kills by Morgan Baumer and Ellie Fullenkamp made it 19-15, and after Mara Pearson's kill drew Fort Recovery within one again, a serve out left made it 21-19.
Fort Recovery got the serve back on a hitting error over the end line, and Paige Guggenbiller hit a knuckler that fell on the St. Henry side to close to 22-21. Teigen Fortkamp fired a kill through the block to knot the set.
"I'm glad for how we played in the finish there, in the third set," Fort Recovery coach Travis Guggenbiller said. "That's what I wanted the whole night. Unfortunately the first two sets didn't go that way, but at least we were able to get some momentum in the end."
The Indians took the lead at 23-22 and 24-23, but each time, St. Henry got a kill to answer. After Fortkamp tied it at 25, Cali Wendel was called for a violation, but Pearson pushed the ball over the block to tie it up again.
Pearson tried for a tip shot but drew a whistle, frustrating Guggenbiller and the Fort Recovery faithful as St. Henry went up 27-26. After Baumer and Werling laid out to save a tip shot, Fullenkamp pushed it to the back left corner for the win.
"It was great to see us find a way to win that game when things weren't really going our way at the end," Rosenbeck said. "We were making way too many errors, we kind of let them back in when we shouldn't have let them back in. Finding a way to be mentally tough and finish a two-point game in game three at Fort Recovery is something I'm really, really proud of."
Werling served up six points, including an ace, to put the Redskins in front 9-5 in the first set. Olivia Gast added an ace in a four-point run that made it 14-7, and after Pearson got a kill to make it 20-15, Baumer had two kills and a block in the final seven points to secure the set win.
St. Henry's Morgan Baumer tries to block a shot by Fort Recovery's Kennedy Muhlenkamp.
In the second, St. Henry leapt out to a 10-3 lead, and after short service runs by Kennedy Muhlenkamp and Pearson made it 12-9, the Redskins pulled away. Baumer added three aces in the span of four shots to finish off a 9-0 run, and Chloe Gels closed out the set with an ace to the back line.
"They had great first ball control, and that was an area I think we really struggled in today," coach Guggenbiller said. "We had lots of service errors today, and our serve receive, we were out of system a lot today. That makes it hard when you can't get your offense going. Kudos to St. Henry for putting that pressure on us, and they handled the pressure well.
"St. Henry did a nice job at serving aggressively," he added, "but in the end, I felt we played very tense in the first two sets."
Fullenkamp led St. Henry with nine kills and Chloe Gels had eight. Baumer racked up 18 digs and Werling made 31 assists.
Fortkamp had eight kills and a block and Pearson added seven kills and two aces for the Indians.
"Their outsides are outstanding, Fortkamp and Pearson," Rosenbeck said. "They're great, they're crafty, they can throw the ball wherever. I think that was probably our biggest concern coming in, how athletic and how great their outsides are."
Fort Recovery and St. Henry both return to action in the Crestview Invitational starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.
