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St. Henry topples top ranked Marion Local, New Knoxville holds off Fort Recovery

October 26, 2006

By Jim Jicha

It isn’t often to have four ranked teams playing together this early in the tournament, but New Bremen isn’t your average sectional. It’s packed with Division IV powers from the rugged Midwest Athletic Conference.

Tuesday night’s sectional finals were between #12 St. Henry and #1 Marion Local, followed by #11 Fort Recovery playing #3 New Knoxville.

Those rankings are intriguing, because New Knoxville and Fort Recovery tied for second in the MAC at 7-2, ahead of Marion Local which finished 6-3 along with St. Henry.

Versailles, ranked #2 in Division III, won the conference title with a perfect 9-0 mark, ending St. Henry’s 13-year run as top dog in the league.

New Knoxville fans have reason to claim their team should be ranked ahead of the Flyers (although Frankfort Adena would surely disagree), since they beat them in league play a week ago, but alas, that was played after the final poll came out.

At any rate, Tuesday witnessed two exciting matches.

St. Henry extracted revenge for a league loss to the Flyers, as well as last season’s sectional ousting, with a gutsy 25-22, 10-25, 25-23, 15-25, 15-11 win that took some one hour forty minutes to accomplish.

New Knoxville fought off Fort Recovery 30-28, 25-21, 25-22, averting a repeat of their marathon league meeting which they won 23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 17-15.

Conflictingly, and also in previous league action, Fort Recovery beat St. Henry which beat New Knoxville, but that’s life in the MAC.

Getting to Tuesday night’s action, St. Henry’s win was due to a great team effort according to coach Lori Schwieterman. While noting that senior middle hitter Betsy Hoying “is a huge player on our team” she added “tonight everybody stepped up”. Schwieterman also credited her defenders for getting to their spots and keeping balls from hitting the floor.

The Redskins took a big lead in game one and then hung on for dear life. After tying it at 5 on a kill by senior outside Rachel Schmackers, they went up for good on a block by junior middle Chelsey Kremer. A long Marion hit and kills by Schmackers and sophomore Shelby Buschur made it 9-5. Soon after, Buschur scored again and Schmackers served six straight points, including three aces, as senior middle Betsy Hoying teamed with Buschur on a block and added two kills. That upped the lead to 17-7.

Trailing 23-13, Marion valiantly tried to pull the game out. Junior outside Kristin Bergman nailed a kill and 6’1” middle Abby Niekamp blocked Buschur in the middle, ignoring a fake by Hoying to the right. Hoying, however, scored next to put her team at match point.

But when Flyer senior outside Danielle Langenkamp spiked a kill from left side, a serious rally ensued with setter Heidi Elking serving up six points and Niekamp spiking three of them. After two Redskin timeouts, Hoying finally put the game on ice.

St. Henry took a brief 3-0 in game two, but Niekamp and Brittany Thobe got the Flyers going with a block, and things went south for the Redskins, who committed four errors while Niekamp added another kill and kept Hoying at bay. Elking served that rally.

Shortly after, setter Katie Schulze served another run that included two aces, two kills by Bergman, and a block by 6’3” middle Megan Barhorst teaming with Thobe. That made it 15-6, and the Flyers rolled on to a convincing win.

Unlike the first two games, the third went back and forth with 13 ties, as Hoying and Niekamp exchanged blocks and kills. Marion nudged ahead 15-14 and, with the point trading, it seemed  they might prevail, especially after they moved up 20-18. St. Henry retied it, but Marion moved back on top 23-21.

Disaster struck the Flyers, however, when Schmackers hammered a spike from five feet back that hit the top of the net and bounced over into a hole. Two Flyer hits sailed out, and then Buschur line drove a perfect backset off a defender’s finger tips for game point.

Game four was a replay of game two, with Marion romping after a brief 5-2 Redskin lead. Bergman started things with a cross court spike, and Niekamp served six points for a 9-5 lead. The Flyers kept adding two and three points with each serve to pad their margin.

The tiebreaker began well for the Flyers as St. Henry obliged with a hitting error, libero Nicole Klosterman served an ace and Niekamp stuff blocked Hoying. At that point, Schmackers got the Redskins on the board with a left side spike that was blocked out, and then served up an ace.

Niekamp pounded a short set kill to make it 4-2, but a Flyer hitting error, followed by Redskin outside Bethany Puthoff’s kill after some nifty digging, tied it.

Middle hitter Kim Droesch put Marion up again with a well placed hit, and Langenkamp followed with an ace. Puthoff scored for the Redskins, but that sent Hoying to the line, and when the ensuing intense volley ended on a St. Henry double hit, the Flyers were up 7-5 with Hoying on the bench.

However, a service error followed, and the Redskins took full advantage with Schmackers, Aimee Hess and Kremer scoring kills. Bergman broke the mini run and the Flyers tied at 9, and again at 10.

But then Kremer nailed a well placed hit for an 11-10 Redskin lead, which brought Hoying back to front row. She promptly blasted a short set kill, then ended an intense volley with a tip.

Thobe scored a kill to keep Flyer hopes alive. Schmackers, however, had other ideas, and she ended the scoring the way she began, spiking a kill and serving another ace.

Leading the Redskins were: Hoying and Schmackers 13 kills, Schmackers 3 aces; Kendra Rutschilling 29 assists, Kayla Brunswick 20 assists, and Bethany Puthoff 8 digs.

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New Knoxville won in three but it wasn’t easy. The Rangers were lucky to win the first game, with Fort Recovery committing five miscues in a row to fall behind 7-2. The Indians recovered quickly, tying at 14, behind the hitting of Dayton bound middle Tiffany Gaerke, sophomore outside Kinsey Wenning and sophomore rightside Joanna Snyder. Indian setter Abby Niekamp then served an ace for the lead.

Yes, folks, there are two Abby Niekamps, and hopefully I have not mixed up any of their plays. It reminds me of a softball game I attended last summer where the other team’s second baseman had the same first and last names as my fourth grade grand daughter. I made sure they met each other afterwards, and the first thing they did was establish that their middle names were different.

At any rate, Ranger 6’0” middle/outside Alycia Niemeyer started a three point mini-rally with a knock down kill. But Fort Recovery retied it, and scoring went back and forth from there, with the teams even trading leads. Play was extremely intense during the overtime.

New Knoxville reached 24 first, and Fort Recovery got to 25 on a well placed tip by Gaerke. Then 6’0” middle/outside Nicole Wright blocked Gaerke to put New Knoxville up, and so it went until Niemeyer ended a wild volley with a kill that give the Rangers a 29-28 lead. Niemeyer appeared to block for the final tally, although the referee ruled the ball never cleared the net.

The hitting tandem of Niemeyer and Wright shifted into third gear the next two games, helping New Knoxville garner big leads, 18-8 in game two and 14-6 in the third. And while Fort Recovery rallied in both, the two hitters scored their share of termination shots, as the Rangers won the races to 25.

Gaerke led the Indians' comeback in game two with five kills and a block, and Wenning spiked three points.

Ranger outside Nikki Kellermeyer scored on a heads up save for point 19. After a kill by Gaerke and a block from sophomore Annie Koesters, Wright delivered point 20 on a well placed tip and followed up with an ace. Niemeyer interspersed points 22 and 23 between four Indian scores, and sophomore Morgan Reineke made it 24-20 with a kill. Gaerke scored on a tip, after which Wright sealed the win with a block.

The Rangers led game three 14-6 after Niemeyer pounded a knock down kill and served up an ace. After that they scored one point at a time as the Indians crept to within 22-21, never scoring more than two straight themselves. Wright and Niemeyer scored points 15 through 21 for the Rangers, and 22 came when the Indians took four hits while dealing with a hit by Kellermeyer.

Gaerke demolished a great set from Niekamp on a slide, and then blocked Wright to bring her team to within a point at 22-21. Ranger right side Meredith Fledderjohann nailed a spike down the left side, but a net serve put Fort Recovery right back in the fray. Niemeyer then scored a point down the left side, and Reineke delivered the coup d’etat by smashing an overpass.

New Knoxville will face St. Henry in a district semifinal Thursday evening at New Bremen, and will seek to avenge a 19-25, 22-25, 24-26 loss.