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ST. HENRY - After a tough loss to Versailles on Tuesday that took them out of first place in the Midwest Athletic Conference, St. Henry looked to wrap up the regular season on a positive note.
The Redskins fended off a strong challenge from Fort Recovery and head into the postseason with a 25-15, 25-15, 25-17 win over the Indians at Redskin Gymnasium on Thursday.
"After Tuesday's loss, we said we had to learn from that stronger," said St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck. "The girls were mentally focused and prepared to learn and get better from it."
St. Henry's Karlee Buschur (11) and Molly Wendel (4) go up to attempt to block the spike of Fort Recovery's Alexis Grisez during Thursday's match.
St. Henry led wire-to-wire in the opening set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead as Molly Wendel and Karlee Buschur came up big on the front line. Wendel had six kills and Buschur had four kills as the Redskins pushed the lead into double digits quickly.
Fort Recovery began to pick up the blocking game and started defending the St. Henry attack and took an early lead. The teams tied four times up to 5-all before the Redskins took the lead for good. Wendel served up two aces as part of a three-point run to push the lead to 14-7. Fort Recovery started to fight back as Bridget Homan served up five straight points - all on St. Henry hitting errors - to get to within 14-13. Mylee Kramer snapped the run with a kill, then Morgan Baumer serve up three straight points to extend the lead back to five at 18-13. Lexi Buschur later served up four straight points to get to 23-15 before closing the match with a Karlee Buschur kill and a Fort Recovery hitting error.
"When we made strong moves, they were good moves," said Fort Recovery coach Travis Guggenbiller. "The problem was, they weren't always consistent."
Fort Recovery's Kayden Ranly (11) sets the ball to a teammate.
The Redskins tried to put the third set away early as Lexi Buschur rattled off five straight points to make it 6-0 before the Indians broke the run with a kill. Kayden Ranly got Fort Recovery back into the match with a run of three straight points, then later Kenna Dues served up five straight. An ace tied the game at 12-all, then a block by Brynn Willmann gave the Indians the lead at 13-12 before Karlee Baumer got a kill to tie the set. The teams continued to battle up to 17-all before a Wendel kill broke the tie. Wendel then stepped back to serve and fired off seven straight, with Bollenbacher getting the final kill to end the match.
"(Fort Recovery is) a young team. They're fighters and scrappers," said Rosenbeck. "They were pushing us all night long."
"We got better as the set went," said Guggenbiller. "We were down 6-0 and came back to 17-17.
"St. Henry is powerful, strong across the board. Hat's off to them. They were fantastic tonight."
Karlee Buschur finished with 11 kills and three blocks for St. Henry. Wendel added 10 kills and 12 digs. Ella Schwieterman, starting at setter in place of the injured Addy Homan, had 30 assists. Morgan Baumer had 25 digs.
St. Henry's Morgan Baumer watches the ball after keeping the ball in play during Thursday's match with Fort Recovery.
Cameron Muhlenkamp finished with five kills and four digs for Fort Recovery, Bridget Homan had four kills and three blocks. Ranley had three blocks and 16 assists.
While St. Henry is off until next Thursday when the Redskins host Delphos Jefferson in the opening round of the Division VI tournament, Fort Recovery wraps up the regular season on Saturday with a home match with Tri-Village. Fort Recovery opens postseason action on Wednesday in the Division VI sectional against Riverside at Newton High School.
