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Jackson Center advances to state

Sunday, 02 November 2008

By Ken Barhorst

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VANDALIA — The Jackson Center Lady Tigers will be making a return trip to the State Volleyball Tournament.

The Fort Loramie Lady Redskins are left wondering what might have been.

Saturday afternoon’s matchup of two county volleyball rivals ended up having two storylines.

One, Jackson Center successfully defended its Division IV Regional championship from a year ago.

And two, the Lady Redskins entered the match in a state of shock after their leader, all-county standout Bethany Hoelscher, injured her foot in pregame warmups and watched the entire match from the bench with her foot wrapped and elevated.

Whether it was the enormous talent of the top-ranked lady Tigers, the effects of the injury to Hoelscher, or a combination of the two, the first game was lopsided, with Jackson rolling to a 25-5 win.

After that, however, the Lady Redskins made the Lady Tigers earn their points.

Jackson coach Kim Metz, understandably elated with the win, wanted to talk about Hoelscher, who she gave a hug to after the match.

“It was just heart-wrenching,” said Metz. “It just tugged at every kind of thing you can think of. Sometimes when that happens, the other girls on the team will rally around that player, and I thought that’s what Loramie did. They played on emotion and really played inspired.”

Jackson Center found itself in a real battle in the next two games, with Loramie’s blocking causing the Lady Tigers problems. But they prevailed 25-20, 25-19 to up their record to 27-1 and advance to Friday’s state semifinals at the Nutter Center against New Washington Buckeye Central, 25-2, at 2 p.m. The winner returns to play for a state championship Saturday at 3.

Fort Loramie coach John Rodgers didn’t know how Hoelscher was injured and didn’t know the extent of the injury Saturday. However, he said in an e-mail Sunday that initial X-rays were negative but Hoelscher was in a lot pain.

Hoelscher entered the game with 384 kills and over 200 digs. Losing a player of her calibre is not the way you want to face the state’s top-ranked team, a squad that rolled through county play unblemished at 12-0.

“I’m never going to wonder what might have been,” said a red-eyed Rodgers after the game. “You don’t dwell on it.”

(From page 1B)

Jackson Center jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the second game, largely on the serving of Tara Spicer, who had three aces in the run.

But Fort Loramie seized the momentum thanks to the serving of sophomore Clair Ruhenkamp, who had three straight aces following a Kristen Zumberger kill to make it 12-8.

After a timeout, Ruhenkamp served another ace before Jackson standout Casey Gates got a kill and a tip for a 14-9 lead.

Jackson pulled ahead 16-9 on a Bethany Hoehne ace, but Loramie refused to go away, cutting the lead down to 21-18.

Again, though, Gates stepped up for the Lady Tigers, with a tip and a kill to stretch the lead again. Andrea Holthaus got a kill for Loramie, but Gates got another tip and another kill to close out the match at 25-20.

Fort Loramie jumped out 3-0 in the third game, and after Jackson tied it 3-3, the Lady Redskins went ahead 12-6 when a Gates block went out of bounds.

But the Lady Tigers reeled off five in a row to force a timeout, then got kills from Gates and Hoehne to take the lead.

A long volley ended with Jackson hitting it out to tie the score, but a Gates kill, a long ball by Loramie, and an ace by Gates made it 16-13.

Loramie cut it to 16-15 but Allissa Ware had a kill and Holthaus hit long. Another Ware kill and a block on Holthaus gave Jackson a 22-16 lead, and the Lady Tigers went on to win 25-19.

“I thought John (Rodgers) did an excellent job of keeping his kids focused after the injury to Bethany,” said Metz. “Ruhenkamp got going in that second game and they had us back on our heels a bit. But I thought we served well and passed well, and we kept our focus, too. We never felt we had it wrapped up, and we kept on playing hard.”

Gates finished with 17 kills and nine digs for Jackson. Ware had 10 kills and 10 digs, Spicer four aces and three solo blocks, Michelle Carmen had three solo blocks, Cortnee Sosby had 14 assists and 10 digs, and Hoehne finished with 14 assists and five aces.

Fort Loramie closes out the season at 19-9.

“I’ve been coaching a lot of years and never experienced anything like I did today,” said Rodgers. “Once the girls calmed down, they played with the same toughness and energy that got us to this point. We had a three-time All-Ohio player with 384 kills injured on the bench and we still gave the No. 1 team in Ohio a run for their money.

“I thought we came out a little shell-shocked, but I challenged them after that first game,” Rodgers added. “I told them they had the ability, and that’s when they decided they could play.”

JC tickets

Jackson Center will sell tickets for the state semifinal game today through Thursday during school hours and Friday from 8-to-10 a.m.

Tickets in advance are $7 and all tickets at the door will be $9.