JC spikers serve past South Side (09/03/2008)

The Patriots seem to be finding their stride. And that's a good thing, because they'll need to be on top of their game Thursday.

Jay County High School's volleyball team, which hosts Class 2A No. 9 Wapahani Thursday, rolled to victory Tuesday night 25-15, 25-12, 25-10 over the visiting Fort Wayne South Side Archers.

It was the third win in the last four matches for JCHS, which is 5-2 after opening the season with three consecutive losses.

"It continued the trend that we did Saturday (at the Heritage Invitational) as far as us being defensively in the right spot, chasing balls when we're not quite in the right spot, and then getting a (pass) where we can run something on it," said JCHS coach Fred Medler, whose squad went 2-1 at the invitational. "We're doing a lot better job at that."

Kristi Morningstar paced the Patriots, who punished South Side with tough serving, with 12 points, including three aces. She also had 13 assists and four digs.

Liz Walker had five of the 16 JCHS aces, including four in a row in the third game, as she totaled 11 points.

"We've served pretty well in almost all matches this year," said Medler, who also got three aces from Kelsey Wood and a pair by Becky Muhlenkamp. "We've got some kids who can step behind the line and against a lot of teams, serve them off the floor ... if we've got it going. We've got some kids who step back there and put some pretty wicked serves on."

Mariah Hornaday, moving to the middle in place of injured senior Sarah Westgerdes, led the Patriot attack with eight kills. Seniors Grady, Lindsey Current and Amy Alig each had five kills, and Grady also added five digs.

"She's really a multi-purpose person," said Medler of Hornaday, a freshman, who has been playing on the right side. "In fact, we've been toying with her on the left side some just because we don't have much size out there. She's going to be one that we can use all across the front row."

Junior varsity

Kassi Hemmelgarn helped lift Jay County above .500 with a 25-9, 25-12 victory over the Archers.

Hemmelgarn powered the Patriots (4-3) from behind the service line with 16 points, including eight aces. She also had four assists and three points.

Alyssa Rigby had four points and three digs, Taylor Burris totaled three kills and Lacey Randolph added two digs.

Freshman

The Patriots even their record at 1-1 by beating South Side 25-13, 25-16.

Whitni Somers paced Jay County with 11 points, four of which came on aces. Randa Gilliespie added six points and two digs, and Shannon Springer had five points with three aces.

Megan May totaled a team-best four kills, Maria Murphy had three kills and Jen Dirksen and Alyssa Rigby each had two digs.[[In-content Ad]]