Down goes Delta

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Molly Hunt smacked a pair of kills early in the night.

Hallie Fields responded with one of her own.

Then Alana Kunkler set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Jay County High School’s volleyball team recorded two dozen blocks — Kunkler had half of them — in a 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 26-24 upset of sectional rival Delta Eagles on Thursday.

“I can’t remember the last time I had that much fun,” said first-year JCHS coach Karley Reid, whose team moves to 2-0 on the year after knocking off the Class 3A No. 6 Eagles (0-2). “When our girls are up and excited I feel like no one will be able to beat them because when they are excited, even if they make a mistake, they are getting the ball up and over.”

Senior Hallie Fields, whose seven kills were second to Kunkler’s 11, was all smiles after the win, the first over the Eagles in more than 30 years. Delta also lost 3-1 on Tuesday to Class 2A No. 7 Wapahani.

“I think it’s because we all worked together as a team and we really pushed for it,” she said. “Everybody knows Delta is a big rival for us and they are in our sectional, so it shows a lot in how far we’ve come in losing seven seniors (from) last year.”

Sara Hemmelgarn (five blocks) and Kunkler had two stops each at the net in the first set, helping stake the Patriots to a 22-14 advantage, the largest for either team on the night. Delta rattled off four straight points, aided by a couple net violations, but Jay County eventually grabbed the set.

Reid hopes the hot start is a staple of the team this year.

“That’s always the plan,” she said. “I always want them going out and going hard. I definitely think getting that momentum in the first game helped. We kind of lost momentum in the second game but they were able to definitely bring it back up.”

Kunkler and her confidants on the front row were mostly absent in the second set, and as a result Hunt fired six of her match-high 21 kills. The Eagles used a 10-1 run at one point on their way to evening the match.

Pacie Denney (eight blocks), Madison Dirksen (three), Hemmelgarn and Kunkler returned to form in the final two sets to disrupt the Eagle offense.

“They were able to shut down (Hunt) on the other side,” Reid said. “She still got some good hits but our defense, we were getting passes right up to target — to where we needed to be — and our girls were able to put it away, whether it was tipping it where they weren’t in the middle of the court or swinging.

“Our front row can move mountains. They are doing great.”

Scrappy play from back row players to keep points alive certainly helped too. It included Natalie Miles (team-high 14 digs), Denney and Fields (eight digs each), coming up with one-handed saves to prevent the ball hitting the floor.

“(Reid) is big on being scrappy and picking up things and hustle,” Fields said. “At practice, that’s mainly what we run, we run a lot of chasing, picking up low balls, digging and serve receive.”

After trailing 15-11 in the fourth set, Delta fired off four straight points to tie the score and later led 22-19. A Hunt kill through a pair of blockers put the Eagles on the verge of forcing a fifth set, 24-22, but a net error and a double hit on a set tied the score at 24 apiece.

Hemmelgarn put the Patriots out front with a tip over the Delta block, and Miles rifled a kill to secure the win.

“We were ready for it I guess,” Fields said of how the team was able to overcome the late deficit.

Reid was just as excited as her team with every kill, every block and every ace — Jay County had a 7-5 edge in aces. She screamed along with her players after each point. She’d squat down and grit her teeth at times with a close play, and barked commands throughout. Her hoarse voice after the match was a telltale sign of her intensity in the match, one she hopes will springboard to a successful year.

“It sets our standards high,” she said. “People know that we’re here to win. We’re here for the long run. We’re going to do really well this season.”