By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
NEW BREMEN — Fans anticipating a St. Henry-Minster volleyball
rematch at the district semifinals will have to wait awhile.
It will be about a year away.
Marion Local took advantage of Minster not having the best of
hitting days in upsetting the Wildcats 15-13, 15-7 in the final
game of Saturday’s Division IV sectional volleyball tournament
at Cardinal Gymnasium in New Bremen.
The Flyers (17-7) will face the Redskins on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
for the right to go to the district final on Saturday at 2 p.m.
at the Palace in Coldwater. The Redskins head to Tuesday on
the strength of a 15-9, 15-4 win over Fort Recovery in the first
sectional final on Saturday.
The Flyers, who lost twice within three days to the Wildcats
in September, used strong defense and hard hitting to end the
Wildcats’ season at 21-2.
“We played outstanding volleyball tonight,” said
Flyers coach Amy Kucharski. “I told them one night, if
we play up to our potential, we can do some damage. Today, everybody
played to their potential.”
In both games against Minster, the Flyers, who got to the game
with a 15-6, 15-8 win over New Bremen in the semifinals, jumped
to big leads — 6-0 in game one and 5-0 in game two, before
Minster came back to make a challenge.
Minster looked to have the momentum in game one leading 13-12
before a long spike out of bounds on Marion’s next serve
tied things up. Eight sideouts were traded before Marion got
the serve back and was able to take the opener. A long hit by
Robyn Hoying was followed up by a kill by Jenny Hartings that
ended the opening game.
Minster got some hard attacks, but Marion’s blocking corps
of Jenna Barhorst and Kelsey Schaefer got touches at the net.
The pair combined for 21 kills and three blocks in the Minster
match.
The key that Kucharski points to in the match was the lower
amount of errors on the Flyers side, something that helped Minster
win the league match and an invitational win over Marion last
month.
“Both times against Minster, we had a lot of serving errors
and hitting errors,” said Kucharski. “We felt if
we eliminated the errors on our side, we could compete with
them. Then we would try to contain Robyn and Valerie (Bornhost)
as much as we could. They still got their kills today, but I
think for the most part, we controlled the net. That was good
to see.”
Minster tried to come back from 0-5 in the final game but the
hitting mistakes allowed Marion to take the serve and gradually
pick up points. Barhost scored the winning kill to send the
Flyers on.
Minster coach Rick Carter didn’t have to say too much
in summing up the loss.
“Our downfall was that we had way too many hitting errors,”
said Carter. “We didn’t attack the ball and they
did. Our defense was okay, considering the way they hit the
ball. We didn’t serve aggressive and they were more aggressive
than we were.”
St. Henry 15-15, Fort Recovery 8-4
Two weeks ago, the Redskins escaped Fort Recovery in a pair
of game wins that needed extra points. The Indians put up a
challenge in the first game, but St. Henry got the momentum
at the end of game one and didn’t give it up in game two.
Fort Recovery forced a tie at 8-8 in game one before St. Henry
came back and scored the last seven points of the match. Lindsay
Puthoff was the driving force in the final rally, recording
three kills and a stuff. The final kill was originally called
out, but a discussion from the officials reversed the call,
saying that a Fort player touched the ball before it hit out.
St. Henry jumped out 7-1 in the second game as the Indians were
unable to get back into the contest. Puthoff and Lindsay Hess
came up with strong games. Hess had four kills and a block as
Puthoff added two kills and another block to put the Redskins
into the district semifinals.
“I think Christa (Schwartz) was serving near the end of
the first game and rattled off quite a few points (four),”
said Redskins coach Lori Schwieterman. “Once we got on
top of the second, we were in control.”
St. Henry was able to keep the Indians’ blocking powers
of Briget Metzger and Jenn Stahl from taking control of the
net. The pair had just two blocks total in the match.
“Between the games I told the girls they have two big
blockers up there. There are holes and we just had to find them,”
said Schwieterman. “Once we found the holes on the right,
they started creeping up, then we wanted to go to the deep corners.
The girls did a good job of adjusting.”
The schedule had the Redskins with a nine-day break between
their last regular season match and the sectional. Schwieterman
thought there might have been some rust, but the break was a
help.
“It gave us some time to rest, and it gave us the chance
to see Fort Recovery play,” said Schwieterman. “Maybe
we were a tad bit rusty at the beginning, but the girls were
hungry because they hadn’t played in a week.”
Fort Recovery coach Jackie Kaup had little to say after the
match that saw her team’s season end at 16-8.
“My girls didn’t have it today. It wasn’t
meant to be,” said Kaup. “I don’t know what
else to say.”
SECTIONAL SEMIFINALS
Marion Local 15-15, New Bremen 6-8
Barhost came up big for the Flyers in the first game between
the teams, picking up three blocks and a kill to help the Flyers
break free from a 3-3 tie to run the score to 11-3 before the
Cardinals (14-9) could score again. Stephanie Brunswick stepped
up with some big plays at the net as well, getting a kill and
block for points.
In the second game the Flyers once again broke a 3-3 tie and
pushed the lead up. New Bremen was able to get back with a late
rally to make the score closer but Schaefer ended the match
with a kill.
Fort Recovery 15-15, New Knoxville 6-10
The much-taller Indians were able to dominate the net against
the Rangers (5-18). Stahl and Metzger combined for eight blocks
in the match.
The Rangers made a game of it in game two, getting out to a
6-3 lead before the Indians scored the next nine points to put
the game out of reach at 12-6. New Knoxville got as close at
12-9 but Stahl had two stuff blocks to get to match point with
Metzger getting the final block to get the win.
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