JCHS downs Falcons

A fifth game seemed inevitable.
The Jay County volleyball team had just watched Winchester run off eight straight points. They came as part of a Golden Falcon run to a 16-10 lead and included three aces and three Patriot errors.
But JCHS coach Fred Medler said his team has learned to “battle, battle, battle” and never give away a game.
That’s exactly what the Patriots did, putting together an 11-2 run of their own on the way to finishing off visiting Winchester 20-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-22.
Back-to-back kills from Mariah Hornaday and Sierra Weatherhead started the deciding JCHS run, and Hornaday added another kill, a block and an ace on the way to a 21-18 lead. An ace from Ciara Ogle pulled the Golden Falcons (13-7) to within 24-22, but she hit her next serve into the net to end the match.
Medler said his team’s resilience, combined with a mammoth effort from Hornaday, keyed the victory.
“Hornaday was just an animal tonight,” he said of the junior middle hitter, who finished with 18 kills, 10 points, four aces and five blocks. “When she was across the front, they had trouble stopping her. She could hit what she wanted to hit, and moved the ball around really well.
“And she blocked really well. So it was her net when she was up there.”
After struggling to find consistent offense in the opening game, the Patriots fought back and led for most of the second. And in the final few points, they scrambled to keep the ball off of the floor leading to a Hornaday kill and a Maria Murphy block to close out the game.
“There was a lot of digging going on, from a lot of different people,” said Medler. “We were scrambling everywhere to get to the ball. It was a real group effort.”
Jay County (10-13) took control of the third game with a 12-2 run that included four Hornaday kills and an ace from Tanner Martin, who finished with 21 assists, 14 points and four aces. The Patriots cruised through the rest of the thid game, and then took a 6-3 lead in the fourth before giving up the 11-2 run and then rallying for the win.
Weatherhead had a team-high 11 digs for JCHS, and Megan May added nine. Murphy finished with six kills.
Winchester coach Julie Smiley said she felt her team got out of sync after libero Erin Lewis went to the bench because of an illness during the third game.
“The team relies very heavily on her for a majority of our serve-receive passing,” said Smiley. “I think that was a huge part of it.
“I had girls playing positions they hadn’t played before. … I know my setters were running everywhere trying to set some of those balls. We were just out of system … every single time, so it was kind of hard to get anything going.”
Megan Culy finished with 11 digs and seven kills for the Golden Falcons, and Alyssa Extin had eight blocks and four aces. Payton Smiley totaled 13 kills, and Ogle finished with 25 assists.

Junior varsity
The Patriots rallied from a game-one defeat to earn their second win 16-25, 2-17, 15-14 over Winchester.
The third game was tightly-contested throughout with Samantha Homan delivering a kill for Jay County to tie the score at 13 only to have the Golden Falcons step in front 14-13 on a kill by Haley Myers. Winchester had the advantage, but its next serve went wide right, and an attack error on the final point handed the match to the Patriots.
Katie Aker led JCHS (2-1) with 11 points and four digs, and Paige Lennartz had nine assists and five points. Shannon Springer finished with three kills.[[In-content Ad]]