Towering winners

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In terms of size, the Patriots had the clear advantage.

Still, the Starfires were stingy defending the Patriot attack.

But in the end, the home team’s ability to tower, and power, past the smaller opponent kept its unblemished conference record intact.

Jay County High School’s volleyball team registered 13 blocks Tuesday and held off a South Adams team that would just not go away in a 25-20, 25-22, 20-25, 25-20 victory over the Starfires.

“I expected that,” JCHS coach Fred Medler said. “They were really good at (the season-opening Allen County Athletic Conference tournament). Scrappy, and they’ve surely gotten better.

“We played OK. Played really good at times but then we’d let down, make some mistakes and let them back in. It didn’t go as unexpected as I thought.”

No matter how Jay County (16-6, 3-0 ACAC) attacked, it seemed the defense for South Adams (12-8, 2-2 ACAC) either got a hand or two on the ball to disrupt the spike, had defenders in the right position to grab digs or sent bodies flying across the floor to keep the point alive.

“We knew there was a lot of height,” SAHS coach Ashley Buckingham said. “Our block has been improving. We’ve been working hard on it and they did their job tonight.

“They set the block where they needed to, they got a lot of touches on the ball to slow them down to make them have to go over us instead of straight down.”

Jay County had to fend off South Adams during each of the first two sets, despite leading by five points in each of them. The Patriots were out front 18-13 in the opener before the Starfires rallied to get within two points, 20-18. But an SAHS net violation and a kill from Sara Hemmelgarn — one of three JCHS players who were key at the net — put momentum back in the Patriots’ favor.

Natalie Miles, who led Jay County’s balanced offense with eight kills, notched one early in the second set to make it 8-3 and force Buckingham into calling a timeout.

The Starfires grabbed an 18-15 advantage before the Patriots closed the set on a 10-4 run for a two-sets-to-none lead.

The third set saw the score tied eight times over the course of the first 22 points, with neither team holding more than a two-point lead. But with the score knotted at 11-all, Shaelynn Bowman notched a block to start a 5-0 Starfire run that Jay County never recovered from.

The Patriots brought the score within one, 20-19, but managed just one more point the rest of the way.

“We played cleanly all the way through,” Buckingham said. “We didn’t give up a late run and that’s something we had been doing that was hurting us. Once we were to 15 points we were able to sustain clean play.”

Alana Kunkler led Jay County with five blocks to go with her five kills. Hallie Fields (seven kills), Madison Dirksen (six kills), Olivia Kunkler (four kills) and Miles each had a pair of blocks as well.

Gabriella Bailey and Bowman shared the match-high of 14 kills, and Lydia Loshe contributed eight kills for South Adams.

“This was one of those matches where you look back on and you’re at a loss,” Buckingham said. “You just wish you could take back one or two points here and there and that would dictate the outcome.

“I feel like we came to play. I love the fact that they fight, we just need to get out (to a lead) early.”



Junior varsity

Jay County handed South Adams just its second loss of the season with a 25-16, 18-25, 15-13 triumph.

Lilly Hedges tallied three kills for Jay County, which also got a pair of kills from Lyric Garringer, Lindy Mercer and Kylie Klopfenstein. Pacie Denney tallied seven assists while Grace Brewster and Izzy Rodgers had nine digs each.

Savannah Alberson led South Adams with seven kills. Jade Baker contributed 17 digs and Taylor Braun tallied 19 assists.