Top-ranked Wes-Del surges past Patriots

GASTON — Once the top-ranked Warriors found their serving groove, there was little Jay County could do to slow them down.
The visiting Patriots gave up 15 aces Thursday to Class 1A No. 1 Wes-Del as they suffered their fourth loss of the season, 25-18, 25-11, 25-16.
Jay County (17-4) gave up a 5-0 run to close the first game and then struggled to pass the Warriors’ serve early in the second. They fell behind 13-3 and never truly found their footing again in the three-game sweep.
“We knew they were going to serve us tough, and if they found out we struggled with serve receive, they were going to hammer, hammer, hammer,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler. “We were trying to limit the number of runs they got. In game two especially it showed up.”
Senior Kennedy Petro aced the Patriots on the first two points of game two on the way to staking Wes-Del to a 5-0 lead. Senior Chloe Kinsey added another 5-0 run with a couple of aces to push the advantage to 10-2, and the Warriors later recorded a 7-0 run with senior Kristen Lansing notching two more aces.
Six different Wes-Del players recorded aces, including Petro (four), Alysa Sutton (three) and Morgan Prather (three).
“Serving is a big part of our game,” said Warriors’ coach Biff Wilson, whose team also topped Jay County 25-19, 25-15 Sept. 13 in the championship match at the Noblesville Invitational. “We spend a lot of time working on serving. It becomes a part of our offense …
“The goal … is to keep them off the net, keep them off balance.”
Wes-Del (18-2) had the Patriots scrambling throughout the second game and took a 5-2 lead in the third thanks in part to two more aces.
Jay County fought back to take an 8-7 advantage, its first lead since 1-0 in the opening game, on consecutive Kylie Osborne kills.
“That’s what we wanted,” said Medler of the game-three effort. “We just told them, ‘We can either pack it up or we can play hard from here on out.’”
But after Perrie Smalley recorded a kill to give the Warriors the ball back, Prather smacked back-to-back aces to start a 7-0 run that put her team in control again. Sutton tallied 14 digs and 12 kills to lead the Warriors. Petro put up 28 assists, and Mariah Berry and Smalley added six kills apiece.
Jay County got 11 digs and six kills from Abby Wendel, and Kylie Osborne finished with 10 kills. Lizzy Schoenlein totaled 20 assists, Abby Barcus had eight digs and Ava Kunkler served four points.

Junior varsity
Jay County was unable to keep pace with the Warriors, falling 25-14, 25-21.
The Patriots rallied from a 22-11 deficit in the second game to pull within three points.
But they were called for being out of rotation on the next point, and Wes-Del finished off the match two points later.
Alli Campbell totaled team highs of 15 assists and nine digs for JCHS. She also had five points.
Audrey Shreve recorded seven kills, and Chloe Trissel scored nine points.