Jay County loses conference pair (09/02/03)

Two very different matches came away with the same result for Jay County as it lost both halves of an Olympic Athletic Conference double-header Saturday.

The Patriot boys tennis team stumbled after leading early with a 4-1 loss against the Connersville Spartans, and then played as well as it has all season in a 5-0 loss to the Huntington North Vikings.

Kurtis Hess scored the only win of the day for Jay County (3-3), defeating the Spartans’ Ben Leiter 6-2, 6-2. The Patriots took early leads in each of the other matches in the day’s opener, but couldn’t stay on top.

In other singles matches, Derek Powell lost to Tyler Blakeley at the No. 2 spot 6-3, 6-3, and Randy Evans fell to Chris Bloom at No. 3 6-3, 6-2.

Both doubles teams nearly forced third sets before falling just short. At No. 1 doubles Matthew Peterson and Tyler Rigby lost to Matt Day and Michael McKinney 6-2, 7-5, and at No. 2 doubles Chip Feazel and Adam Paxson were downed by Kyle Schlichte and Jason Arnold 6-3, 7-5.

Patriot coach Barry Weaver was very happy with his team’s effort against Huntington North, despite the shutout loss. The Vikings are strong this season, led by a crew of five seniors.

The No. 1 doubles pair of Wil Goodrich and Tyler Rigby played the closest match, losing to David Cole and Jason Best 6-4, 7-5. At No. 2 doubles Chip Feazell and Adam Paxson dropped to Matt Hesting and Michael Karst 6-3, 6-2.

Kurt Hess suffered just his second loss of the year at No. 1 singles to Dan Ballard 6-4, 6-2. Derek Powell took a defeat against Alex Wilson and No. 2 singles 6-0, 7-5, and Randy Evans lost at the No. 3 position to Phil Sundling 6-0, 6-0.

Jay County’s junior varsity team had a good day, winning both of its matches by 3-2 scores to improve to 5-1.

The doubles teams were perfect on the day, with Adam Arnold and Chad Miller scoring an 8-3 win against Connersville while Jason Crouch and Todd McCowan won 8-4. Against Huntington North it was Travis Smith and Jeff Sims besting Derek Best and John Karn 8-0, while Crouch and James Heare edged Piers Fetters and Stu Purcell 9-8 (7-4).

Goodrich sealed the win for the Patriots against Connersville with an 8-4 win over Zach Bard at No. 1 singles. Travis Smith lost to Josh Jarboe 8-5 at No. 2 singles while Sims dropped to Tim Jeffries at No. 3 singles 8-1.

Peterson secured the Jay County win against the Vikings with an 8-2 victory over Brad Watkins at No. 1 singles. Arnold lost at No. 2 singles to Jared Fitzmaurice 8-4, while Miller played to an 8-3 loss against Jared O’Kirby at No. 3 singles.

Jay County continues conference play at home today against Muncie Southside at 4:30 p.m.

JC girls soccer splits

The Jay County girls soccer team went 1-1 at the Muncie Central Invitational Saturday with a 2-0 loss to the Indianapolis Lutheran Saints and a 4-0 victory over the Muncie Southside Rebels.

The Patriots (2-1-1) struggled to get shots off against the Saints, falling behind 1-0 at halftime while shooting just three times. Jay County managed six shot after the intermission, but Emily Batteiger scored her second goal for Lutheran about 10 minutes into the second half for the final margin.

The second game had a much different look as the Patriots went with a shuffled lineup, including freshman Sara Garringer at goalie. The consolation game saw Jay County outshoot the Rebels 13-1.

Senior Beth Siegrist and sophomore Kristie Burke each scored their first career goals in the contest. Siegrist’s came on an assist from Lindsay Friddle.

Friddle also scored the Patriots’ first goal of the game, and Renae Laux put one in the net on a second-half penalty kick.

Jay County will host Norwell Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Jay volleyball 1-2

Jay County’s volleyball team opened with a solid win over New Haven, but fell to the host Patriots and Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian at the Heritage Invitational Saturday.

Jay County rallied after losing at tight first game to New Haven for a 20-22, 21-15, 21-15 victory. It played what coach Fred Medler called its best match of the year in a 15-21, 21-7, 21-16 loss to Blackhawk Christian, and came out flat in a 21-16, 21-14 defeat against Heritage.

Blackhawk won the invitational with a 3-0 mark. Heritage was second at 2-1.

Ashley Overla had a big match against New Haven, sharing a team-high of seven kills with Sara Hough, and adding 12 points and three aces. She had six kills against Blackhawk, while Hough notched five kills, 10 points and six aces.

Overla again led the team with six kills against Heritage, and Hough added five. The junior finished with a team-high 19 kills in the three games, while adding 15 points and four blocks.

Hough had 17 kills, 19 points, 25 digs and nine aces. Erin St. Myers led the team with 29 digs, and Becki Beeler had 28 digs.

Sarah Ainsworth put up 42 assists, and Markie Runyon had a team-high six blocks.

The Patriots will play at Fort Wayne South today at 6 p.m.

Fort tickets

Tickets for Fort Recovery’s football game Friday at home against Minster will go on sale Thursday.

Tickets will be available in the high school office Thursday from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. They will also be sold in the middle school office Friday from 8 a.m. to noon.

Pre-sale tickets are $3 for students and $5 for adults. All tickets at the gate will be $5.[[In-content Ad]]