Bearcats top JC (05/01/08)

The Bearcats had lost just once this season, to six-time defending sectional champion Marion. Roy Adams had hoped his Patriots could at least put a scare into them.

Instead, Muncie Central turned in four shutouts sets and blanked the Jay County High School girls tennis team 5-0.

"This is a disappointing loss, certainly, for us," said Adams, whose team is now 4-7. "Nothing against Muncie Central ... they've had a pretty good year. ... It's disappointing to see us come through and not score better than we did.

"It's frustrating. But again, Muncie Central is not a bad team, they're a good team, but I certainly was hoping for a better result today."

The closest match for the Patriots, who have lost three straight, came at No. 1 doubles where Cindy Muhlenkamp and Tiffani Bickel won their opening game.

But, they dropped the next four and spent the rest of the first set trying to dig out of the deficit.

They pulled all the way back to within 5-4, but Central's Sarah Hanover and Eliza Ogasawara finished off the opening set when a shot by Bickel sailed wide right.

Muhlenkamp and Bickel led 2-1 in the second set before dropping five of the next six games. They fell behind 40-love in the final game en route to the 6-4, 6-3 defeat.

"One doubles certainly had their chances today," said Adams of the duo that finished second at Saturday's DeKalb Invitational. "I think we forced some things today, and made more unforced errors because we did. And that cost them the match at the end. ... I think we could play with them if we played them again, I think we could beat them."

Hannah McAbee also turned in a solid effort in her No. 3 singles match against Katelyn Bergdoll. She dropped the first set, but then had a 3-2 lead in the second.

However, Bergdoll won the next four games to finish off her 6-2, 6-3 victory.

The only other match in which the Patriots won more than a single game came at No. 2 doubles. Megan Huntsman and Briann Saxman lost by a 6-0, 6-2 score to Bailey Hall and Pavla Truex.

"Two doubles, I don't want to say they started out sluggish necessarily, but they weren't striking the ball very well," said Adams. "We finally got there toward the end of the match, but this was not near as good as I saw them play up at DeKalb this weekend."

At No. 1 singles, Megan Adams fell 6-1, 6-0 against Michelle Schmaltz. Betsy Knittle lost at No. 2 singles by a 6-0, 6-0 score to Kathryn Smith.

Roy Adams said he didn't necessarily expect victory against the Bearcats, but he had hoped to pose a stronger challenge.

"Muncie Central I thought we would compete better with today," he said. "We just didn't quite show up like I wanted us to. Hats off to them, they're a good team ... but I still think we can play a little bit better than what we did."

Junior varsity

All three of the Patriots' wins came in doubles action as they fell 7-3 to Central.

At No. 1 doubles, Becky Muhlenkamp and Emily Huntsman topped Brittany Lipscomb and Emily Green of the Bearcats 8-4. Dezi Clay and Danielle Chenoweth won by the same tally over Karoline Haukjem and Molly Carter at No. 5 doubles.

The only other win for Jay County came from Kelli Howell and Chelsea Kimmel by an 8-6 count over Lachelle Collins and Danielle Stewart.[[In-content Ad]]