Patriots' season ends

MUNCIE — The Patriots led just once in the opening two games.
They didn’t score more than two consecutive points in either.
And after they finally did in the third, they couldn’t get the ball away from Jenna Mitchell.
The Concordia Cadet senior recorded three aces while serving her team to a 10-0 run that ended any hope Saturday for the Jay County High School volleyball team, which had its season come to an end with a 25-15, 25-16, 25-13 loss in the semifinal round of the Class 4A sectional tournament at Muncie Fieldhouse.
"They were good," said JCHS coach Fred Medler, whose team finished 16-13. "We knew they were good. But … there’s not one thing they did that we weren’t ready for. …
"The same thing has happened to us all year long. There are times we play and play really well. There are times that we play and make mistakes and they just compound on top of each other. That last game is a perfect example. We’re in the lead … and then we let them run 10 straight points against us. At least half of them were our mistakes. You can’t beat good teams when that happens."
The Patriots had pulled ahead with a 6-1 run in the third game and had a 10-9 lead after an Abby Barcus kill. But Josie Sauer recorded a kill on the next point to tie the match and put the ball in Mitchell’s hands.
The junior’s first three serves all resulted in Concordia points thanks to two JCHS errors and a kill by Abigail Oetting, leading Medler to take a timeout. The rest of the run was a pattern — a Sauer kill, then a Mitchell ace — not once, not twice, but three times for a 19-10 Cadet lead.
"She has a jump top," said Concordia coach Tricia Miller of Mitchell’s serve. "You get a lefty that does that, it kind of curves backwards a little bit. … You’re not used to seeing that. … I always feel like any time a lefty hits that (it’s tough)."
Jay County managed just three points the rest of the way, and Cleasia Craig and Teddie Sauer finished off the match when they stuffed an attack from Barcus.
The early part of the third game was the best stretch for the Patriots, who gave up the first two points of the match and never led in the first game. A couple of calls for being out of rotation — the second took several minutes to sort out — put them in a 6-3 hole.
"That started the mental breakdown … and that happens once in a while," said Medler. "That’s a bad way to start. … The bottom line is … we were at 6-3. It’s not that big of a deal. We just have to play out of it, and we didn’t play out of it really well."
Concordia later put together a pair of four-point runs for a 17-7 lead en route to its 25-15 win.
Jay County got its first lead when an Oetting attack sailed long on the opening point of the second game, but it didn’t last long. Consecutive kills from Craig and Abigail Minger gave the advantage back to the Cadets and they never relinquished it.
The Patriots stayed close, trailing 16-13, but then gave up a 5-0 run on Mitchell’s serve as Concordia pulled away.
The Cadets (21-11), who advanced to play Muncie Central in Saturday’s sectional title match, were consistently able to hit around or tip over Jay County’s block. That resulted in 10 kills apiece for Oeting and Minger while Caroline Morrison put up 31 assists.
"It’s something we work on a lot," said Miller, who also got a team-best 15 digs from libero Audrey Kruse. "They have a couple big blockers. Our kids are good at understanding what defense they’re in and what they need to attack."