Patriot netters shut out RS

It's been a great week to be a Patriot.
Avery Loyd secured one sectional championship Thursday, scoring the clinching point for the Jay County High School girls tennis team in its 5-0 victory on its home courts over the Randolph Southern Rebels. Less than two hours later, wins in the shot put and 4x400-meter relay at Muncie Central locked up the sectional title for the boys track team.
The Patriots had won one sectional championship apiece in the fall (girls cross country) and winter (gymnastics) seasons. They are a perfect 3-for-3 in the spring thus far. The JCHS girls track team rolled to its fourth straight sectional crown Tuesday before the girls tennis and boys track teams joined the party Thursday.
The two sectional championships in one day is a rare feet, last accomplished by the Patriot gymnastics and boys basketball teams in 2004.

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The Patriots started with a built-in advantage.
They didn’t need it.
Jay County locked up its first sectional title in more than a decade with a singles sweep, including a forfeit at the No. 1 spot. Its doubles teams then both rallied from a set down, giving the host Patriots a 5-0 victory over the Randolph Southern Rebels in Thursday’s championship match.
“It’s awesome,” said JCHS junior No. 1 doubles player Shawna Miller. “It’s amazing. Everyone has really stepped up this year.
“I’m in love with my team. That’s just the way it is.”
It’s a championship that seemed unlikely at the beginning of the season with Jay County returning just one varsity player from a team that had a losing record in 2012.
The Patriots won just three matches during the regular season, but entered the tournament undefeated against sectional opponents. They turned in their second 3-2 win of the year over Winchester on Wednesday, and then shut out Randolph Southern for the second time in nine days to win the title.
“I’m thrilled. I’m so proud of them, so happy for them,” said Jay County coach Susan Garringer. “I think the key to their success in the sectional is they finally started playing to win, and not playing not to lose.
“Before … they were tentative. They didn’t have the confidence they needed on the court. ...
“When they started to play to win, they were in charge of the match. They were setting the pace.”
The Patriots’ last championship, in 2001, also came from a team that posted only three regular-season wins.
That group — Kristen Hess, Kristen Klatt, Kelly Hess, Julie Bubp, Candace Northam, Kinzi Houck and Rachel Fullenkamp — went on to top Twin Lakes 3-2 in the regional semifinal round before falling 5-0 to Kokomo in the regional title match.
This season, Jay County advances to play the host school in the regional Tuesday at Marion. The Giants earned their regional berth with a 4-1 win Thursday over Madison-Grant.
With Miranda Reinhart getting a forfeit victory at No. 1 singles Thursday, the Patriots needed to win just two of the remaining four matches to earn their championship. Jessica Kerrigan, a late fill-in Wednesday, dominated Hannah Haines 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 singles, and Avery Loyd handled the rest.
Loyd fought off a comeback by Randolph Southern’s Kyla Coyle in the opening set, holding on for a 7-5 win after leading 4-1. She took the first three games of the second set, neutralizing Coyle’s full-court game in the process.
“I feel like I moved a lot better than I have before,” said Loyd, a senior. “I’ve been getting better progressively over these last few matches, but tonight especially because she had me kind of running all over.”
Reinhart got her forfeit as the Rebels’ Katie Thorne was unavailable to play because of a college visit to Olivet Nazarene University. Jay County’s Brooke Fraley missed the entire sectional for a visit to Olivet, but Kerrigan filled in and won both No. 3 singles matches despite having played just once at the varsity level prior to this week.
It was hard for Reinhart, the only returning varsity player this season, to watch from the sidelines, but she was happy with the result.
“It feels really good,” she said. “I’m really, really proud of these girls. They worked hard for this. I just wish I could have helped them out.”
With the singles sweep already in place, the doubles matches couldn’t impact the team result. But that didn’t change the approach from Sydney Bost, Shawna Miller, Faith Parr and Emily Westgerdes.
After combining to win just three games in their opening sets, the Patriots came fighting back to win in the second.
Miller and Bost went back-and-forth with Cailin Reedy and Jordan Fox in the third set at the No. 1 spot, eventually taking a 5-4 lead. They took an early advantage thanks a double fault on the first point of the next game, and finished off the win 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 when Randolph Southern couldn’t handle a volley from Miller.
“We basically knew that the singles were winning and we had already won sectional,” said Bost, “but we really needed to win it for ourselves.”
At No. 2 doubles, Westgerdes and Parr trailed 4-3 in the second set before reclaiming the lead and eventually dominating a tiebreaker 7-2. They fell behind again at 4-3 in the deciding set against Brianna Wigginton and Macey Melton, but won four of the next five games with Parr serving out for the win.
“I’m so proud of them for doing that,” said Garringer of the doubles rallies. “It makes the win even sweeter.”[[In-content Ad]]