Ainsworth serves Jay to third place (10/06/03)

With serving specialist Kelly Sautbine out and Sara Hough still limited in her playing time, Sarah Ainsworth put together a big serving day.

Ainsworth led the Patriot volleyball team in points in each of its four matches Saturday as they finished third in the Olympic Athletic Conference tournament. Jay County finished with a 1-3 record.

Anderson Highland won the tournament at 4-0

The lone win for Jay County came by a 21-14, 21-11 score over Connersville in the opening match. It lost to Huntington North 21-16, 21-8, Muncie Southside 21-19, 19-21, 23-21 and Anderson Highland 21-11, 21-10.

The Patriots earned third place by winning the tiebreaker over Connersville and Muncie Southside, which were both 1-3 in the tournament.

Ainsworth had her best match overall against Muncie Southside, scoring 10 points and putting up 24 assists. She added one ace and one kill in the contest.

In other matches Ainsworth scored 12 points against Connersville, six points against Huntington North and three points against Anderson Highland for her total of 31 on the day. Next for Jay County were Hough and Erin St. Myers with nine points apiece.

Ainsworth also finished with 46 assists and five aces in the tournament.

Hough paced the Patriots defensively with 39 digs. Becki Beeler had 24, and Erin St. Myers notched 22.

Ashley Overla led the team with 15 kills, and Shannon O’Dell had 14.

Jay County’s next match will be at Richmond Thursday at 6 p.m.

Firebirds win big

The Jay County Firebirds under-14 soccer team scored a couple of huge shutout wins this weekend. The Firebirds defeated Franklin County 11-0 Saturday, and trampled Hagerstown 9-0 Sunday.

Dustin Fox and Brad Horn each recorded hat tricks for the Firebirds against Franklin County. Chase Ainsworth, Derek Bartlett, Matt Bauer, Adam Horn and Patrick Johnson contributed one goal apiece.

Fox added another three-goal game against Hagerstown, with Ainsworth also coming away with a hat trick. Ben Brandt, Johnson and Horn each had one goal.

Fox, Johnson and Horn shared goalie duties to reject every shot taken against them on the weekend.[[In-content Ad]]