Patriots win in 4

For the first time this season, the Patriots have back-to-back wins. Now coach Fred Medler wants to see his team build off of them.

The Jay County High School volleyball team, which defeated Union County in its last match in Saturday's Noblesville Invitational, knocked off the visiting Blackford Bruins 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-23 Tuesday.

"We won one, that's basically what we can say," said Medler, whose team is now 3-14. "It's still the same lack of intensity at times, the same passiveness, the same errors. ... We were just lucky enough to figure out a way to win.

"We just kept playing and we ended up ahead on the scoreboard instead of behind. We've been real close and played real well, but it's just like we're playing (to the level of) whoever is on the court with us."

A 12-2 run gave the Patriots a 17-12 lead in the fourth game, but Blackford nearly forced a fifth game. It rallied back with a late 6-1 run, tying the game on an ace by freshman Madison Crist.

However, Jay County was able to halt the run and take the next two points to secure the victory.

Kelsey Wood, who is still working her way back to 100 percent after missing several matches with an ankle injury, led the Patriots with 12 kills.

"Wood swung pretty well," said Medler, who started the senior in the middle to try to limit her movement before putting her back in her regular outside position. "She's been out for a while and it's just been hard getting her back."

The Patriots gave up the final six consecutive points to drop the opening game before rebounding to win the next three. They jumped out to a 7-0 lead in game two behind two kills from Maria Murphy (10 kills, two blocks) and one of Ashley Langenkamp's five aces.

JCHS never trailed in the game, finishing it off on a Murphy kill.

A run of three kills in four points helped the Patriots take the lead for good in game three. Murphy later added a kill and block back-to-back for a 19-14 lead leading to a Bruin timeout as Jay County took the two-games-to-one lead.

A 6-0 run, including two aces by Deanne Twibell, pushed Blackford to a 10-5 lead early in game four before JCHS responded with its big run and then held on for the victory.

Langenkamp finished with team highs of 11 points and 10 assists for the Patriots. Lacey Randolph had 14 digs, Laura Castillo followed with 12 and Danielle Wellman came up with 11. Hannah Ainsworth scored 10 points.[[In-content Ad]]