Patriots 2nd as hosts

A second-place finish Saturday was a major victory.
The Jay County High School volleyball team, which dropped its first nine matches last season, finished 2-1 as hosts of Saturday’s Jay County Invitational to finish in second place. Norwell, which topped the Patriots 25-15, 25-22, won the tournament with a 3-0 record. Marion was third and Northeastern was last in the four-team field.
After dropping its opening match to the champion Knights, JCHS (2-2) bounced back to defeat Northeastern 25-7, 25-21 and Marion 25-19, 25-17. The Patriots didn’t even win a game in their invitational last season, and their second victory of the year did not come until September 12.
Junior middle hitter Mariah Hornaday paced the Patriots with 37 kills at the invitational, including 16 in the victory over Northeastern. She also reached double digits with 12 kills in the loss to Norwell, and shared the team high of nine kills with Maria Murphy in the win over Marion.
Hornaday led the team in blocks with six.
Alyssa Rigby totaled 19 points, 16 of which came against Northeastern. She also had five of her eight digs against Marion.
Tanner Martin put up 13 assists against Northeastern on the way to totaling 36 for the day. The senior setter added 17 points.
Murphy finished with 17 kills, and Hannah Ainsworth added 19 assists and 10 points.
Jay County will look to jump above the .500 mark today when it hosts South Adams.
The Patriot junior varsity squad finished 1-2 at the JCHS Invitational with its only win coming 25-22, 25-22 over Northeastern.
Katie Aker keyed the victory with 12 points, four assists and two digs. She finished as the team’s tournament lead in points (26), kills (11), digs (seven) and aces (seven).
Paige Lennartz put up 13 assists, and Audrey Avey also had seven digs.[[In-content Ad]]