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[ PREVIOUS STORIES ]

10-20-03: Flyers upset Wildcats; Redskins cruise

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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