Ace in the hole

Chloe Trissel stepped behind the service line and smacked one ace. Then she hit another.
After a Randolph Southern attack error, she blasted three more.
She was far from finished.
Trissel ripped off nine aces in a span of 12 points in Monday’s third game as the Jay County High School volleyball team blew out the visiting Randolph Southern Rebels 25-9, 25-13, 25-11.
“It’s a great run, and she’s capable of doing that if she just keeps her serve in,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler. “It’s a power, topspin jump serve, so it’s an easy one to miss and a tough one to always get in. There were two or three of those that were close to the line and one of those that were close to the net, but they stayed in this time and let her get that run.”
The Patriots had won the first two games handily, but the third was tied at six when Trissel stepped behind the service line. Her five aces and the one Randolph Southern error gave JCHS a 12-6 lead before the visitors called timeout.
The Rebels did manage to return Trissel’s next two serves, but it didn’t help. Audrey Shreve recorded a pair of blocks on those points, and then Trissel went back to work. She sent aces off the arms of Logan Jeffers and Sierra Hall before Randolph Southern called timeout again.
The junior used her topspin serve to victimize Hall for another ace following the timeout and then dropped another just inside the left sideline before finally smacking one into the net to give the ball back to the Rebels.
“I started off the match kind of rough with a couple shanks, so my mindset when I went back in was to just try to make it up with my passes and my serves,” said Trissel. “I just kind of went out there and served hard and tried to apply pressure to them and their serve-receive pattern.
“First I started out with my jump float serve, and then I went to my topspin. Usually my topspin is harder to receive or run an offense off of.”
Maggie Pryor added an ace later in the game, and Kendal Garringer had back-to-back aces to finish the match.
The Patriots (5-2) scored nearly a third of their points in the victory on their 24 aces, with Trissel notching 10 of them. Ten different players recorded aces, with Garringer adding four and Katie Lyons and Randi Ferguson each chipping in a pair.
It was Garringer who got Jay County going early after it fell behind 4-0. She had two aces as part of a nine-point service run, during which Sarah Walter and Randi Ferguson each tallied two kills.
“Kendal Garringer went back there and got a nice run,” said Medler of the sophomore who also had eight assists. “And that sparked us. …
“In game two I thought it was Kailee Denney (seven assists) setting the ball very, very well that kind of sparked us at times. …
“And then in game three it was Trissel.
“Those were probably the sparks for us in each game. It was a different person each game.”
With leading hitter Abby Barcus sidelined after having her wisdom teeth removed Friday, the Patriots spread things out on offense. Britlyn Dues and Kaelyn Weaver each had five kills, and Walter, Ferguson and Shreve finished with four apiece.
Dues came up with seven digs, and Ferguson totaled five.

Junior varsity
The Patriots swept past Randolph Southern, using an 8-2 run to close out a 25-18, 25-15 victory.
Sarah Hemmelgarn set the tone for Jay County with four kills. She also tallied three aces.
Emma James put up eight assists, and Allison Jobe and Maggie Pryor totaled three digs apiece.