Jay upsets Raiders

The Jay County volleyball team was riding high after its five-game win Tuesday over Fort Recovery.
Now, the Patriots can hold their heads even higher.
Down two games to one and trailing 24-20 in game four on Thursday, Jay County rattled off six straight points to even the match.
Then, the Patriots battled back from an early deficit in the decisive fifth game to upset the Class 3A No. 7 Wapahani Raiders, 25-23, 24-26, 18-25, 26-24, 15-13.
“This win … it’s huge,” said sophomore setter Lizzy Schoenlein, who finished with 10 digs and 40 assists. “They’ve had state titles recently, so it’s nice to come out and win. It’s a huge win for us. We’re so excited.”
Wapahani (5-3) won back-to-back state titles in 2011 and ’12 in Class 2A before being bumped up to 3A.
Jay County (9-1) had its back against the wall in game four, trailing 24-20. On an attack by the Raiders, Barcus came through with one of her eight digs, and as the ball went over the net to the Wapahani side, it found a hole in the Raider defense for a Patriot point to cut their deficit to three.
The Raiders weren’t able to get Bre McIntire’s ensuing serve over the net cleanly, and a side out on an attack by Kylie Osborne cut the Raiders’ lead to one, forcing Wapahani coach Jared Richardson to call a timeout.
Facing match point for the fourth straight time, Jay County coach Fred Medler said he told his team during the timeout the Patriots weren’t done yet.
Following the break, two straight attack errors gave Jay County a 25-24 lead, and Barcus slammed home one of her match-high 20 kills to seal the comeback win and even the match.
“We get to game four (and) we’re all but knocked out,” said Medler, whose team has won eight straight matches since falling to Delta on Aug. 21. “We were able to get that one. That was a big win.”
It wasn’t quite smooth sailing in the fifth and final game, either.
The Patriots jumped out to a big lead in game five Tuesday against Fort Recovery, and Medler didn’t want to allow the Raiders to do the same to his squad — but they nearly did.
An ace and three straight attacking errors by Jay County gave Wapahani an early 4-0 advantage. JCHS finally got on the board on Britlyn Dues’ only kill of the match, and the Patriots scored five of the next six points — kills by Abby Wendel and Barcus, an Osborne ace and two errors by the Raiders — to take a 6-5 lead.
The Patriots went on a 9-5 run to take a 14-10 advantage and play for match point. A lifting call on Jay County and two straight aces by Ann Schuck got the Raiders back within one, 14-13.
On the subsequent play, Osborne, who struggled on her attacks earlier in the game, went right after the Wapahani defense. The Patriot junior’s spike deflected off the arm of Chase Curry and to libero Hannah Smith. The Raider junior could not get a clean hit.
The final whistle sealed the upset for Jay County and sent the Patriot crowd into a frenzy.
“That was just shear determination on the girls’ part,” said Medler of the pressure-packed game. “We didn’t play all that well at times in this match, and they got a couple games on us.
“Just being able to keep battling … we won two five-game matches (this week). That’s really big.”
Richardson didn’t think the outcome reflected the effort on the court.
“Jay County did a great job playing,” he said, visibly frustrated after the loss. “My attackers did a great job. We were the better team tonight.”
Jay County and Wapahani went back and forth in game one before Jay County nabbed a 13-8 lead to force a Wapahani timeout. Then, the Raiders went on an 11-1 run — including a stretch of nine-straight points — to take a 19-14 advantage.
The Patriots answered with a run of their own, scoring six straight points thanks to kills by Ava Kunkler and Barcus, and an ace by Schoenlein. The teams went point for point again, not being able to hold onto its serve, until the score was tied at 23 — the eighth tie of the game. A miscommunication on the Wapahani defense and a seeing-eye kill by McIntire to the left corner gave Jay County a game-one victory.
Games two and three went to the Raiders, with Jay County never getting control of the serve.
“I thought we kind of gave that one away because we had three service errors,” Medler said of game two. “We didn’t get a chance to score any points.
“Game three (was) kind of similar. They get to where we have to battle back. We have a chance to win and it slips away from us … not because we’re not trying, Wapahani is just good.”
Osborne (12) and Wendel (10) joined Barcus with double-digit kill totals, with Kunkler and McIntire adding seven and six kills respectively.
Wendel had a team-high 17 digs and Osborne followed with 15. McIntire (12), Kunkler (11) and Schoenlein also reached double figures.
Schoenlein praised the Patriot defense for cutting down the open lanes for Wapahani’s attack.
“Our defense was really on it tonight,” she said. The Patriots tallied 74 digs as a team. “We were picking up balls I had never seen us pick up before. Wendel was doing good back there and Barcus wasn’t letting anything touch.”

Junior varsity
Jay County’s junior varsity team scored seven of the final eight points in game three to beat Wapahani 25-18, 13-25, 15-13.
Dues led the Patriot offense with seven kills, and Emilie Walter and Audrey Shreve had six kills each.
Kaelyn Weaver tallied four kills, and Alli Campbell had 20 assists. Kady Finnerty had three aces, and Walter recorded three blocks, including the game-winning stop.