Total team effort

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BERNE — The Patriots don’t have the strong offense they’ve had in the past.

In two years they’ve graduated three players who are competing in college, and another who is playing basketball the next level.

The Starfires have perhaps the best one-two punch in school history, including an NCAA Division I commit.

The visitors threw the haymakers in the first two sets for a commanding lead. The hosts and defending conference champion fired back to force a fifth set.

But in the end, the Patriots proved six is better than two.

The Jay County High School volleyball team used a complete team effort Tuesday, keeping its perfect conference record intact with a 25-23, 25-16, 14-25, 23-25, 15-12 victory over the South Adams Starfires at StarDome.

“With a lot of teamwork, effort and communication,” JCHS senior Kaelyn Weaver said of how the Patriots (11-7, 4-0 Allen County Athletic Conference) were able to shrug off losing the third and fourth sets to beat the Starfires. “I think honestly we played really well together.

“The second two sets were a little iffy, yeah. We kind of just gave up a little bit, thought we had it in the bag since we won the first two sets. But clearly South Adams is a good enough school to show us that we should not have slacked off there.”

JCHS coach Fred Medler, who joked that the win was a result of solid coaching, credited how much his team — Chloe Trissel and Weaver are the only two seniors — has grown up throughout the year.

“That one would have gotten away from us in the first 10 matches of the season,” Medler said. “We’ve learned; just keep battling. Just keep battling.”

Despite having lost the previous two sets, Jay County kept jabbing at South Adams (13-7, 2-2 ACAC). After JCHS freshman Alana Kunkler blocked IPFW commit Madi Wurster, her sister Olivia notched a kill and a Wurster attack sailed wide of the court as Jay County grabbed a 7-3 lead in the sprint to 15. But kills from Jade Farlow, Addie Wanner and Julia Grabau made it 7-6 Jay County, and an attack error tied it up at 7-all.

But another three-point run — two attack errors by the Starfires and a Trissel ace — put Jay County out front for good. The Patriots had a 14-10 advantage before surrendering consecutive points. Medler called a timeout asking for one thing.

“I said, ‘Let’s make a great pass, we have three great passers back there,’” he said, referring to freshman Natalie Miles, junior Sarah Walter and Trissel.

Miles had a team-high 15 digs and shared the match high of three blocks. Trissel was second on the team with 12 digs, and Walter finished with nine.

The plan was to get the pass to Weaver on the right side against a defender she had a size advantage over.

“We fought hard as a team. The pass was there, the set, it was perfect,” Weaver said. She slammed home her match-high 22nd kill of the night to the back line to clinch the match. “We knew we were getting it right then and there.”

“To go 4-0 in the ACAC is fabulous, especially this far along how we’ve improved as a team. It’s been a great season so far and I’m glad we got this win.”

For SAHS coach Ashley Buckingham, her analysis was simple.

“You just can’t give up a run in the fifth game and we gave up two,” she said. “We caught up on the first one and after we gave up that second one, that is a hard hole to dig out of.

“Unfortunate. We just had a hard time being consistent tonight and that was the story of our evening, which is frustrating to players and coaches.”

After playing poorly in the opening two sets, South Adams, which now has to shift its focus to winning the conference tournament in October, roared back to dominate the third set. A 12-0 run, complete with four Lydia Loshe aces, helped the Starfires build a 16-3 lead. The Patriots cut the deficit to as little as nine, 22-13, but only nabbed one of the next four points.

With the sweep out of the question, Jay County was poised to put South Adams away in the fourth set as it led 6-1. But a kill from Madi Wurster — she led the Starfires with 20 kills — started to swing the momentum in favor of the home team.

After taking a 16-13 lead, South Adams fell behind 19-17. But that’s when the Starfires got back out front by using a 5-1 run on the way to holding off Jay County to win the fourth set and force a decisive fifth.

“The first two sets were more of a mental rollercoaster for the team,” Buckingham said. “It didn’t have much to do with our physical ability, it had to do with our mental game. I was proud of them to dig out of that and come out in the third game and play aggressively and play consistently like they can do. We just had a hard time maintaining it.

“It was just one of those evenings.”



Junior varsity

South Adams made relatively quick work of the visiting Patriots, winning 25-19, 25-10.

Gabriella Bailey notched five kills and five digs for South Adams, while Kylee Bixler and Savannah Alberson had four kills each. Jade Baker and Esther Troyer both had six digs, and Josie Grabau tallied 16 assists.

Hallie Fields led Jay County with eight kills, and Sara Hemmelgarn was second on the team with two kills. Emma James tallied seven assists and five digs, as Josie Adkins and Fields had two digs apiece.