The Commercial Review

Anna ends FRHS postseason run in four sets in regional semifinal

CLAYTON, Ohio — The Indians haven’t met much resistance through the playoffs.

Over their previous four matches, opponents only reached 20 points once and never claimed a single set.

The Rockets provided a different kind of challenge.

With a quicker offense than what the Tribe had seen to that point in the postseason, the Rockets jumped out to an early lead.

By the time the Indians got caught up, they already trailed by two sets and couldn’t complete the comeback.

The Fort Recovery High School volleyball team took the third set from the Anna Rockets, but ultimately fell to 25-19, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22 in the OHSAA Division VI Regional 24 semifinal hosted by Northmont on Thursday.

With the win, Anna (17-7) moves on to face No. 1 Coldwater on Saturday to battle for the regional title.

While the Rockets advanced, Fort Recovery’s season came to an end after making its fourth ever regional appearance.

“The girls didn’t give up today,” said FRHS coach Travis Guggenbiller. “I love the energy they had. I’m proud of the fans and the student section we had today, they were never once quiet and believed in us the whole time. It’s disappointing but I’m proud of these girls.”

Guggenbiller mentioned on Monday that the speed of Anna’s offense could provide a challenge to his team. That proved true in the first set as the Rockets’ setter Izzy Jenkins looked for outside hitter Liz Staudter as early as possible to claim the first three of five straight points to start the match. After the 5-0 run, the Indians cut the deficit to three points on two occasions (8-5, 12-9), but Staudter made her way back to the outside position to help Anna go on another 5-0 run to take full control of the set.

Staudter gave Fort Recovery (13-14) trouble all night, finishing with 34 kills, just nine shy of the Indians as a team. The senior had 10 kills in the first set, eight in the second, nine in the third and seven in the fourth.

Ava Reed and Ashley Gehret followed Staudter’s lead with nine and seven kills, respectively.

“Oh it’s so fast,” said Indian senior Kennedy Muhlenkamp about Anna’s offense. After the first two sets the rotation got switched to put her in the back row more often to try and slow the Rockets down. “It’s so hard to read that sometimes you just have to make a choice. Sometimes you’re wrong, most of the time you’re wrong, but you just have to keep making a choice.”

Kennedy Muhlenkamp notched a team-high 27 digs, followed by Kenna Dues with 19, Kayla Heitkamp at 14 and Bridget Homan with 11.

After going back and forth in the second set, Anna claimed 10 of the final 13 points to put the Indians’ backs against the wall.

Rather than folding, Fort Recovery came into the third set with a fervor, taking the first five points to jump out to an 8-2 advantage. FRHS got points on a pair of Rocket errors, two Heitkamp aces, a block by Karlie Niekamp and Cameron Muhlenkamp and kills by both as well as Homan.

AHS fought back to take a 15-14 lead before a Staudter service error and a run from Homan that included two kills and a block put the Indians back in front and in position to claim the set.

“So they responded well to our defense,” said AHS coach Kelli Zumberger. “Eventually they were setting up different offenses and setting different tempos. I think for us just trying to catch up made us struggle a little bit.”

The teams went back and forth in the final set trading small runs. After going up 13-12, FRHS committed four consecutive errors that gave the Rockets a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Cameron Muhlenkamp finished with a team-high 16 kills to power Fort Recovery’s offense. Heitkamp added four kills, four aces and 34, while Homan had eight kills, two blocks and two aces to support the effort.

“It took us about three sets before we could get used to (Anna’s speed),” Guggenbiller said. “I wish we could have played the first two sets how we played sets three and four. It’s unfortunate we didn’t, but we learned and grew a lot today and I’m proud of them.”

While the Indians won’t get a shot at a rematch with Midwest Athletic Conference foe Coldwater, they were able to hold their heads high knowing they were just the fourth volleyball team representing Fort Recovery at the regional level.

“It was all just surreal,” Kennedy Muhlenkamp said. “The stands are so huge and our town – everybody’s here. There was a huge student section and it was just amazing to play.”