Patriots sweep Falcons

Jay County’s volleyball team didn’t practice since its loss to Wes-Del on Thursday.
The time off showed in the first game against Winchester, but once the Patriots got rolling it was hard to slow them down.
Jay County picked up a three-game sweep against the visiting Golden Falcons, 25-21, 25-15, 25-17, four days after being swept by the Class 1A No. 1 Warriors.
“We talked to them about when you’re coming in fresh … you just have to focus and concentrate,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler, whose team moved to 18-4 on the season, tying its win total from a year ago. “(Give) Winchester credit, they dig balls well, and in game one we decided to hit right at them.”
Winchester (3-18) went back-and-forth with the host Patriots in the opening game, going on runs of three or more points on three separate occasions. JCHS sophomore Abby Barcus, who finished with five kills, and four digs, halted each of the three runs by the Golden Falcons. Her third kill of the match sparked an 8-3 run by the Patriots, including a four-point streak and two aces by Britlyn Dues.
“They were serving pretty good,” Medler said. “Our passing wasn’t great, our offense wasn’t great, and when that happens you can’t blast the ball right at a digger.”
After taking game one, the Patriots adjusted their attack, going away from the strong, powerful hits to softer, more precise shots. The change worked, as Jay County rode the serves of Bre McIntire, Kylie Osborne, Lizzy Schoenlein and Ava Kunkler to a 16-4 lead.
McIntire, who finished a perfect 15-of-15 from the service line, recorded all five of her aces in a 7-0 run after Winchester got the first point of the match. As the Patriots built their lead, Osborne also had an ace, and Abby Wendel tallied three of her team-high nine kills.
“It wasn’t anything we were doing that looked tremendous, but we were playing smart,” said Medler, whose team hosts Southern Wells at 6 p.m. tonight and travels to Heritage on Thursday. “A lot of times the difference between winning and losing is playing smart.”
After cruising to a win in the second game, Medler switched up the Patriot lineup, giving Emily Westgerdes, Emilie Walter, Katie Lyons and Dues more time on the court in game three.
Jay County got out to a 6-2 lead, and after Winchester got the ball back on a service error by the Patriots, Westgerdes notched back-to-back kills, giving her team an 8-3 advantage. She finished with five kills in the match.
“If you look at a lot of what her hits were, they weren’t hit hard,” Medler said of Westgerdes, a left-handed senior. “Emily doesn’t just go up a lot of times and crush the ball. She had a couple pretty decent swings where she hit the ball hard.”
The Patriots struggled over the next 15 points, as Winchester went on an 11-4 run on a pair of aces by Leah Wren and three from Leah Malkey. During the stretch, only one of the Jay County’s points was earned. Also, the Golden Falcons capitalized on communication issues within the Patriot defense. Wren tallied consecutive aces, one of which was down the line on the right side of the court.
“It was mistake ball,” Medler said. “It was lack of communication. They were listening to the wrong people, paying attention to the wrong people and it just wasn’t clicking very well.”
Walter, a junior, ended a five-point run by Winchester with a block and a kill to force WCHS coach Julie Smiley to take a timeout with the score tied at 14. After the break, Westgerdes and Wendel recorded consecutive kills for Jay County, which scored four more points to go on an 8-0 streak and lead 20-14.
The Patriots’ momentum was too much for Winchester to overcome.
“I would probably attribute that to our mental toughness,” Smiley said. “We’ve had some issues with our mental toughness this season. We’re a young team, a little inexperienced and hopefully they’ll get tougher as they progress.”
Although the victory wasn’t an attractive one, Medler was still pleased with it.
“(It was) a good win, another one we can notch up,” he said. “It wasn’t a pretty one, but you don’t have all pretty ones, so we’ll take it.”
Junior varsity scores were not available.