No. 6 New Knoxville remains unbeaten, sweeps No. 8 Fort Recovery.
No. 6 Rangers sweep No. 8 Indians; still has not lost set this season
NEW KNOXVILLE — In a battle of two Division IV top-10 state ranked teams, the Rangers were dominant, winning at home and defeating Fort Recovery in three sets Thursday night.
The Rangers (8-0, 3-0 MAC) have yet to drop a set through their first eight games.
“I knew it was going to be a battle,” said New Knoxville head coach Meg Lageman. “Even though we won in three, it was still a battle. Every MAC game is a dog fight, especially Fort Recovery.”
The first set was evenkeel early on until junior Melisa Waterman stepped in to serve.
Behind her serves and thanks to strong offensive play from junior Carsyn Henschen and senior Morgan Leffel,
the Rangers rallied off eight straight points to take a 15-5 lead and forced Fort Recovery to call a timeout.
The Indians (7-1, 3-1 MAC) broke Waterman’s serve the following timeout but couldn’t ever close in on the Ranger lead in the set.
The closest Fort Recovery cut the lead was at 24-17 but an errant Indians’ serve out of bounds gave New Knoxville the 25-17 win.
The second set started as well as it could have for the Rangers, winning six straight points to start behind junior Ellie Gable’s serves and junior Avery Henschen’s two kills.
Fort Recovery didn’t quit though and were able to chip away at the lead, making it as close as 11-10 after a huge block by junior Whitley Rammel.
New Knoxville proceeded to go on a run of their own after that point, extending the lead to 14-10. The Rangers scored two more after a Fort Recovery timeout and held their own the rest of the set, again winning 25-17. The third set was the closest of the night, with each team trading leads early on.
There were ties at 11-11 and 16-16. New Knoxville proceeded to score two straight points and ended up extending their lead to three points at 23-20. After a Paige Fortkamp kill made it 24-22, Leffel ducked out of the way on the following serve as it sailed out of bounds, sealing the victory for the Rangers.
“They’re very solid, eighth in the state and undefeated as well,” said Lageman about Fort Recovery. “I just told them to come in ready because it’s not going to be easy and we’re going to have to keep them out of system to win this game and outlast them and that’s what we did.”
Lageman agreed the third set was the most competitive of the night, giving Fort Recovery credit for battling throughout.
“I told them it was close. I said, ‘Did we think they were going to lay down and die? No.’ We knew they were going to keep fighting back,” she said. “I think it came down to who wanted this game more. They worked their tails off and we fought really hard to win that game.”
All six New Knoxville starters played the whole match Thursday and Lageman said she was proud of all of them.
“I have six girls that never came off the court. I’m just so proud of them,” she said. “All six played fantastic tonight. The Henschen girls, who haven’t been playing defense, played relentless defense. They went after everything. Honestly, all my hitters were so aggressive. Melissa Waterman kicked butt in the back row and Ellie (Gabel) is just a great setter. She’s never been a setter until this year and she’s doing fantastic.”
Carsyn Henschen led the match with 10 kills and Leffel added nine. Waterman contributed eight digs and Haley Fledderjohann was close behind with seven. Gabel totaled 21 assists.
The Rangers will play next on Saturday against No. 3 Fort Loramie.