By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
FORT RECOVERY — When talking about her team’s 15-7,
15-4 win over Bath on Monday, Fort Recovery volleyball coach
Jackie Kaup called it a work in process.
While the Indians had the points to spare to beat the Wildkittens
at Fort Site Fieldhouse, getting that 15th point was a bit on
the troublesome side in the first game.
 With
Fort Recovery leading 14-7 and having Renee Schmackers, who
had 11 service points in the game, going for the game point,
a hitting error forced a sideout.
In fact, nine sideouts took place before Krystal Rammel, who
had the other three service points in the game, nailed the ace
for the game point.
“I lost track,” Kaup said, referring to the number
of sideouts. “We’ve been working on trying to finish
the game. As you can see, it’s still a work in progress.
I have to give my girls credit, they rotated six times and didn’t
give up a point. We’ve improved in that fact. We don’t
let them have a couple points and sideout then let them have
a couple more and sideout. We’re slowly improving on the
finishing part.”
The Indians were up 5-1 in game one before the Wildkittens scored
six straight to take a 7-5 lead. After a trading of sideouts,
Rammel served up three points to make it 8-7. After Bath then
lost the serve, Schmackers served six straight points to make
it 14-7, setting up the battle of sideouts.
Having Stahl serving in the first spot in the rotation and Schmackers
in the second turned out to be a strong combination in the first
game with all the points, including a total of five aces in
the game.
“That was a good rotation for us,” said Kaup. “For
some reason it just clicked. It seems to be scattered each game.
They did a great job keeping the ball on the court.”
The improvement was visible in the second game as the Indians
were able to get points 14 and 15 on the same serve when Stefanie
Westgerdes aced and had the match closed out on a kill by Jenn
Stahl.
The Indians took advantage of having the height against Bath,
whose tallest player was 5-9. The middle hitting combo of Briget
Metzger and freshman Tiff Gaerke was dominant with Metzger,
who had a slow start due to a hand injury in the preseason,
being in strong form in tallying seven kills and four blocks.
“We hoped we would take advantage (of the height) tonight,”
said Kaup. “I know my girls blocked well and got touches
on the ball. It’s important for our success. (Metzger)
is improving. Her injury took some time to get her back but
she’s getting better.”
Veteran Bath coach Nancy Kizer knew it was a tough road.
“I felt we had the momentum going into that second game
(after holding off game point in game one), but my girls just
didn’t get off to a good start,” said Kizer. “They’ve
played against some tough teams and had been able to play with
some of them. We just couldn’t get it going.
“(Size) has been a concern with a number of teams. ...
It’s hard to compete against some girls. ... Fort Recovery
is a very nice team. They play in a tough league, not that we
don’t because we do, but the MAC is well-known.”
Fort Recovery’s junior varsity improved to 8-1 with a
15-11, 15-5 win over the Wildkittens.
The Indians (9-3) host St. John’s on Thursday at Fort
Site. Bath (5-9) returns to Mercer County on Thursday to face
Celina in a Western Buckeye League showdown.
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