Aces wild

The Patriots recorded 19 points when attacking at the net.

They had three more than that when swinging from the service line.

Jay County High School’s volleyball team served up a whopping 22 aces in making quick work of the Randolph Southern Rebels on Monday, 25-7, 25-8, 25-8.

“That is something that I have told the girls the whole season is that they have just done a great job at (serving),” said JCHS coach Amy Dillon. “Very seldomly have we dropped below 90% in-bounds serving.

“We’re not always great being aggressive with our serves and we’re not getting aces all the time … They’re starting to get a little more aggressive with it (lately). The consistency was already there.”

Izzy Rodgers led the Patriots with six aces, while she and Pacie Denney were each 12-of-13 from the service line. Rodgers recorded three aces in each of the first two sets, serving five consecutive points each time. Her run in the first helped the Patriots (6-12) go on top 16-3, and her run in the second set put her team on top 11-3.

Jay County closed out the second set with three consecutive aces from Madison Dirksen, who was second to Rodgers with four aces to go along with her team-high five kills.

The Patriots, who went 1-2 in the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament Saturday, had such a commanding advantage through the first two sets they were able to get a little creative with their lineup and put some players in positions they don’t normally play.

Junior Grace Brewster, who was libero for the first two sets, switched positions with senior Alana Kunkler, allowing the 5-foot, 3-inch Brewster to begin the final set on the front line. She had a handful of attacks but did not record any kills.

Lauren Brewster, a 5-foot, 5-inch sophomore who finished with three kills, was attacking early on in the night from the right side.

Lyric Garringer, a senior also contributed three kills, and made all five of her serves with one ace.

“Lyric has just went in the last few matches and been super consistent for me,” Dillon said, also noting Lauren Brewster has been playing a timid for most of the season but has come out of her shell in recent matches. “She puts the ball in play and she plays great defense.”

But Dillon was most pleased with allowing some of the other players, such as the Brewsters, junior Kylie Klopfenstein (four kills, four digs, a block and an ace) as well has junior Hanna Muhlenkamp, to get some time on the court.

“It’s huge, and it’s especially huge for next year,” she said. “When we start to put together a team next year we’re replacing some bigs.

“We have some spots to fill and see what these girls could possibly do next year.”

Out of the 23 total points the Rebels (4-13) scored on the evening, nearly half — 12 — were from Jay County mistakes.

“We needed a win,” Dillon said. “Tonight, I said, ‘I still want you to compete, but let’s have some fun with it. Let’s put some people in some different spots and give it a shot.”

On Saturday in the ACAC tournament at Heritage, Jay County lost the opening match to the host team, 25-22, 25-16. Earlier Monday, Heritage, which is also a sectional rival of Jay County, moved up to No. 3 in the IndianaPrepVolleyball.com and IHSVCA Class 3A poll.

Jay County then fell to South Adam 25-15, 25-21 before rebounding to beat Bluffton, 25-1, 25-12.

Dirksen led the squad with 17 kills on the day, followed by Kunkler’s 15. Grace Brewster posted 31 digs, and Denney racked up 28 service points and 24 assists.



Junior varsity

Sophia Saxman had six kills while three others added four each as Jay County won, 25-19, 25-17.

Bella Denton, Laila Waddell and Maggie Dillon tallied four kills apiece. Danielle May paced the defense with seven digs. Five of Dillon’s six serves went for aces, and May was 12-of-13 from the service line with four aces.

Joske Herndon tallied 15 assists.