Patriots fall short at invitational

MONROEVILLE — The Patriots played three close matches. They just couldn’t break through.
Jay County High School’s volleyball team finished 0-3 at Saturday’s Heritage Invitational, falling 25-20, 20-25, 27-25 to New Haven, 25-16, 14-25, 25-21 to Canterbury and 32-30, 25-19 to the host Patriots.
Bre McIntire had eight service points, six kills and five digs in the loss to New Haven and led the way throughout the day for JCHS (2-7), which has dropped four straight. She totaled 18 service points, 17 kills, 11 digs and seven aces.
Rachel Ferguson finished with a team-best 21 digs to go along with 17 service points, and Kylie Osborne totaled 16 kills. Hannah Ainsworth matched McIntire with 18 service points as she finished 35-of-35 serving.

Boys tennis goes 0-3
MUNCIE — Jay County struggled at the Muncie Central Invitational, suffering shutout losses to Mount Vernon and the host Bearcats as well as a 4-1 defeat to Bluffton.
Sophomore Garhett Blackford earned the only victory of the day for the Patriots (1-5) as he topped Bluffton’s Collin Barker at No. 3 singles. He dropped the first set 7-6 (7-3) before rallying to dominate the second 6-1 and then win the match in a super tiebreaker.
No. 1 singles player Landry Inman came back to force a super tiebreaker in his match against Central’s Andrew Fox, but lost 6-1, 5-7 (10-5). Jake Schwieterman and Evan Mathias played the tightest match against Mount Vernon as they fell 6-4, 6-4 to Matt Hays and Mark Alvarado at No. 2 doubles.

JV spikers split
FORT WAYNE — The Patriot junior varsity volleyball team split its four matches at the Caroll Invitational, topping Columbia City 25-23, 25-17 and Heritage 25-27, 25-21, 15-9. It lost 26-24, 25-12 to the host Chargers and 25-19, 26-28, 15-7 to DeKalb.
Ali Inman led the way for Jay County, which is 5-5 on the season. She had 26 service points, including 10 aces, and 24 digs.
Mallory Marshall added 16 digs and 11 kills, and Jessica Kerrigan had 25 service points and 10 aces. Courtney Finnerty finished with 23 assists, and Lucy Hemmelgarn had nine kills.[[In-content Ad]]