Stars cruise past Jay in ACAC opener

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The Starfires were coming off their first win of the season.

Their opponents had lost three in a row.

The team on the skid put up little challenge.

South Adams High School’s girls tennis team won all three singles matches and one of the two doubles contests as it cruised to a 4-1 win over Jay County on Monday in the Allen County Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

“(South Adams coach) Cindy (Greer) does a good job with them,” said JCHS coach Dave Cramer, whose team dips to 1-5 (0-1 ACAC) on the year. “I’ve known Cindy for years … she does a really, really good job.”

South Adams, which was coming off a 5-0 sweep of Southwood last week, moves to 2-4 (1-0 ACAC) and hosts conference foes Bluffton and Adams Central on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Jay County hosts Union City, a sectional rival, Tuesday.

“It’s the confidence,” Greer said of her biggest takeaway of Monday’s match. “Wins help build confidence.”

Hannah Dull, the No. 1 singles player for South Adams, jumped on Jay County’s counterpart Dawn Minnick early by winning the first five games. Minnick prevented the sweep by winning the sixth game, but Dull took the next for the set victory.

The Starfire senior again had a 5-1 lead in set two before taking the match 6-1, 6-1.

“She’s had a big step up,” Greer said. Dull is the lone returning player from last year’s squad, and moved up two spots from her No. 3 singles position as a junior.

At No. 2 singles, sophomore Josie Grabau of South Adams used her strong backhand to get past Maria Dirksen, 6-1, 6-3. Grabau led the second set 4-1 before Dirksen claimed two of the next three games to pull within two, 5-3.

Fellow sophomore Alexa Kinsey worked a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jay County’s Lyric Garringer by playing simple, fundamental tennis. She didn’t try to do anything too overpowering, instead just returning the ball as cleanly as she could with each shot.

“Alexa is the perfect No. 3 singles player because she will just hit the ball back to the center of the court,” Greer said. “The more she works on her fundamentals the better she will get.”

Gabi Bailey and Kirsten Herman, the Starfires’ top doubles team, didn’t surrender a game in a clean 6-0, 6-0 sweep of Kaitlyn Ruiz and Jenae Kirby. But the match-sealing game didn’t come easily.

Ruiz and Kirby were one point away from winning game six, but Ruiz’s return went wide. Bailey followed with an ace down the right sideline to force deuce, and the Starfire duo grabbed the advantage on an attack error by Jay County. Kirby returned Bailey’s ensuing serve long to give South Adams the match victory.

Although Herman is a senior and Bailey a sophomore, the tandem plays as if they’ve been together much longer, Greer said.

“We work on doubles a lot in practice with and without the ball,” she added.

Jay County’s only win came at No. 2 doubles as Ashlyn May and Ella Roessner picked up a win over Michelle Donis and Anna Dee after the Starfires were forced to retire because one of the players was no longer able to fight through an illness. Donis and Dee won the first set 6-3, but May and Roessner responded with a 3-2 lead in set two before the match was halted.

“They started playing well in the second set but they take a while to decide to play,” Cramer said. “They compete. They’re out there fighting. That’s what you do, you fight.”

Cramer said he was unhappy with the way his singles players and top doubles team played, leading to him rethinking his lineup for the future. He noted a number of freshmen who dominated their junior varsity matches as potential replacements going forward.

“The underclassmen are playing really, really well,” he said. “I have to make some changes. If I’m going to get beat I’m going to get beat with people trying.”