Thrilling opener

FORT WAYNE — Fred Medler has talked about it all year long.
No matter what the score or situation, his team never stops fighting.
And it’s that attitude that kept the Patriots going in their tournament opener.
Jay County fought back from deficits all night long, weathered the storm early in the fifth and deciding game and then took control. It denied the Fort Wayne North Side Redskins’ two strongest servers and finished the match on a 14-4 run for a 22-25, 25-19, 26-24, 22-25, 15-8 win in the Class 4A volleyball sectional tournament at Fort Wayne North Side.
“It’s a good way to win a match,” said Medler. “Athletically, they were pretty good, and bigger at the net on the outside. For our confidence, to battle against a team like that (was huge). When we look across (the net), we know they can beat us. But yet, we just didn’t let them beat us.”
Jay County could have been in trouble as it fell behind 4-1 in the deciding fifth game with the Redskins’ two best servers — Miranda Peterson and Kelly Burns — up next. But they earned side outs on the first serve by each of them on kills from middle hitters Mariah Hornaday and Maria Murphy and rolled the rest of the way.
After stopping Peterson, Hornaday notched an ace as she served three straight points. And after halting Burns, Hannah Ainsworth (17 assists, 10 points) scored three points in a row with the last coming on an ace.And with Burns and Peterson, also North Side’s two best attackers with 24 and 11 kills respectively, relegated to the back line, the Patriots never let go of the lead.
The Redskins closed back to within 9-7, but JCHS ran off five in a row to put the match firmly in its grasp and then ended it on Murphy’s 18th kill of the night.
“I was afraid (Peterson and Burns) were going to jump out in a quick game and we were going to be in trouble,” said Medler. “And we shut them both down quick. And that was a key. Once we got passed those two servers, then our confidence was there and we were able to take them off the court.”
The victory gave the Patriots three times as many wins as they had last season as they improved to 15-18. They are one victory short of the 2008 squad that finished 16-19 and fell to Huntington North in the sectional semifinals.
Jay County will play in the semifinal round Saturday at 11 a.m. against Marion, which defeated Fort Wayne South Side 25-16, 25-23, 25-22 in Thursday’s other opening-round match. The teams have meet twice this year, with the Patriots winning at both the Jay County Invitational and the Marion Invitational.
While the Patriots won two of the first three games Thursday against North Side — they pulled away with an 8-1 run to take control in the second — they played from behind for much of the match as they trailed by six or more points in the first, third and fourth games. They fought back in all three, and it was their comeback victory in the third that turned the tide.
The Redskins were up 9-3 early and still had a six-point lead at 18-12 as they threatened to take control. Then Jay County started feeding its middle hitters and North Side could not find an answer.
Murphy recorded kills on five out of six points to close the gap to 19-17, and then turned the duties over to Hornaday (26 kills). She recorded kills or blocks for six of the Patriots’ final nine points, including the game winner, as they finished on a 14-6 run for the win.
“The kids decide that. We explain to them as a hitter what the other side is leaving open, and the kids just started setting those two,” said Medler. “They carried us big time. And we had our backs against the wall.
“In game three they jumped out to a lead and we battled back. That was a big win for us. Randa Gillespie came in when Sierra (Weatherhead) was having trouble passing their serve, and she dug a couple of balls that were crucial right there when we were gaining ground …
“(Gillespie and Jen Dirksen) did their job when they were out there,” he added of the pair who came off the bench and helped in the serve-receiver game. “And it picked everybody else up when they made those plays.”
Although North Side turned their big leads in the first and fourth games into victories, neither was easy. The Patriots railed from a seven-point deficit to pull to within one before dropping the first, and came back from down 23-14 to close the gap to just two before losing the fourth.
“We got very tentative. We haven’t won a match since the last of September. So it’s a new thing for us to be ahead like that,” said North Side coach Ry Taliaferro, whose team finished the season with just four wins. “We just let them creep back in instead of being aggressive and pushing them on out.
“What really hurt us was our passing, and our lack of being able to run any kind of offense. They did a great job of picking stuff up and getting back to the middle. And that hurt us. We couldn’t stop their middle.”
In addition to combining for 44 of Jay County’s 55 kills, Hornaday and Murphy each had three blocks. Weatherhead totaled 22 digs and 11 service points, Alyssa Rigby also had 22 digs and Tanner Martin put up 34 assists.[[In-content Ad]]