Patriots blast MC

The Patriots made some mistakes in their opening game. Even so, it was over in a hurry.
And they improved their play in the next two games.
Jay County High School’s volleyball team made quick work of the visiting Monroe Central Golden Bears on Thursday, rolling to a 25-16, 25--17, 25-10 victory.
“Obviously the competition this Thursday is different than the competition we had (last Thursday) against Wapahani,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler. “We’ve been working on cleaning up a lot of our unforced errors that Wapahani didn’t make us make, we made them anyway. That stuff is cleaning up.
“In the first game we miscommunicated and didn’t get to a few balls. We didn’t go after it. Two players stood and watched instead of two players going after it about five or six times … After that it didn’t happen again.”
The Patriots (4-8) were in control throughout, taking a 23-9 lead in the second game on an ace by Bre McIntire. Monroe Central closed the gap with an 8-1 run before an attack error finished off the game.
And then with Jay County leading the third game just 8-6, Malarie Houck took over.
The sophomore drilled back-to-back kills to extend the lead, and then stepped behind the service line and scored six straight points. The last of those was an ace off the arms of Monroe Central’s Maleah Huser that pushed the Patriot advantage to 18-8.
Ashley Motter, a junior, came off the bench to close the match by serving five straight points.
Houck finished with team highs of 12 service points, including two aces, and 10 digs. She also had five kills.
Freshman Kylie Osborne had 10 kills, two aces and 1.5 blocks.
“I thought Osborne had a great night,” said Medler. “She had a big night.
“She’s aggressive. One of the things that the outsides have not been doing is getting back to be able to come into a ball and see everything in front of them and hit hard. And she was getting back (tonight), being patient … saw the hands, swung hard. And she moved the ball around a little bit.”
Hannah Ainsworth added 20 assists for the Patriots, and scored nine points on a 15-of-15 serving effort. Rachel Ferguson came up with nine digs.
With the match well in hand, Medler was able to mix up his lineup in the final game. Houck, who had been working on the right side and serving as the secondary setter, moved back to the left side, and sophomore Lucy Hemmelgarn got the first varsity playing time of her career.
“We got to use different players,” said Medler. “The last game we were able to adjust and put Malarie back out on the outside.
“We got (Emily Westgerdes) back in the middle. She stepped up and played real well today.
“I thought it was a good match for us.

Junior varsity
Jay County dominated the Golden Bears in a 25-8, 25-16 win.
Ali Inman powered the Patriots with 14 service points, including four aces. She also had four digs.
Faith Parr finished with seven service points and four digs, Michelle Wellman notched nine kills and Jessica Kerrigan totaled seven assists. Sierra Trobridge and Lucy Hemmelgarn each had two kills.

[[In-content Ad]]