Patriots cruise to semifinal

MUNCIE — The odds were stacked against them.

The Patriots had a three-in-five chance at meeting one of the top teams in the state to begin the sectional tournament during the Oct. 4 draw.

Fortunately for them, they received a matchup with the Knights, a team that entered not state ranked, but with just six wins on the year.

They cruised to the semifinal.

Jay County High School’s volleyball team swept the Norwell Knights 25-20, 25-21, 25-17 Thursday in the Class 3A Sectional 23 opener at Delta.

“It’s huge,” JCHS coach Amy Dillon said of the Patriots’ first sectional win since the 2018 season. “We had a little sectional draw party. We were all together. They were just convinced we were going to draw one of these top three teams.

“I am very happy that we got a draw that we were competing against somebody that was comparable to us.”

With the victory, Jay County (10-16) advances to the 11 a.m. sectional semifinal against the host Delta Eagles (5-12). Bellmont (19-4), the top-ranked team in the state and last year’s state runner-up, meets the second-ranked Burris Owls (20-4) in the second semifinal at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Owls swept No. 6 Heritage (23-5) later Thursday night. The sectional final is slated for 7 p.m. Saturday.

Jay County’s offense helped stake it to an early 6-1 lead as Natalie Miles (two), Abbie Fields, Alana Kunkler and Lyric Garringer each had kills. A short time later, Kunkler went back to the service line and fired two aces as part of a 6-0 run which made it 12-3.

The Knights, who end the year at 6-25, slowly came back to bring it to within four, 24-20, but Pacie Denney surprised the Knights with a quick set for the final point of the opening set.

Jay County had to play from behind for the first time on the night in the second set as Norwell jumped out to a 12-7 advantage. Two points earlier, though, Dillon called a timeout in an attempt to rally her troops.

“It was kind of like, you know, you need to take charge of this set,” Dillon said of the message during the minute-long break. “You are the better team.

“Just cleaning up the errors and that gave us the momentum going into the third set.”

Once the Knights got back-to-back points out of the timeout to make it 12-7, an Izzy Rodgers quick set began a five-point JCHS swing that included a Kunkler block, a Miles kill and a Brenna Haines ace.

Miles finished with a team-high 10 kills, two ahead of Kunkler, who also had assisted on five blocks blocks and three aces. Madison Dirksen had six kills.

It took consecutive Grace Brewster aces later in the set for the Patriots to jump back in front, 21-20. And with a 23-21 advantage, Haines had a desperation running dig close to the net that kept a rally alive and eventually led to a Norwell attack error.

It was exactly the type of effort Dillon had hoped out of the freshman.

“We have really, really been pushing Brenna about ball control,” Dillon said. “Ball control (and) controlling her body because she is defensively one of the best kids we’ve got in the gym.

“But she is also sometimes a little spastic and all over the place. Sometimes that plays into our favor and sometimes that doesn’t.”

Next up for Jay County is the Delta Eagles, a team that beat the Patriots in three sets Aug. 20 in Portland. The key, Dillon said, will be cleaning up some mistakes, having more crisp passes and getting Dirksen more involved in the office.

“I don’t think we ran Madison as much as we needed to run her tonight,” she said. “I’m not sure that she really got a good swing in all night. We need her and Alana big time.

“We’re running a different rotation than we were when we played Delta the first time, so I’m hoping that will help us out a little bit.”