Patriots place third in invite (08/25/03)

PORTLAND — The Jay County volleyball team learned a few more things about itself Saturday, and added two names to the list of squads it hopes to push past as the season rolls on.

The Patriots finished third out of four teams as they hosted the Jay County Invitational Saturday, scoring their lone win over the Northeastern Knights, 21-9, 21-10, 21-5. They lost to the Marion Giants 21-14, 21-10, 16-21, 21-18 and the Norwell Knights 16-21, 21-10, 21-12, 21-16.

“You just take a perspective on it and call it growing pains,” said Jay County coach Fred Medler, whose team will meet both Marion and Norwell again this season. “That’s where we’re at.”

Medler said the goal now is to improve enough to beat the Giants when they face off at the season-ending Marion Invitational, and Norwell, which it will meet at Tippecanoe Valley in three weeks.

Jay County looked good early, opening with a game-one win against Norwell.

The Patriots were aided in that game by a quick start from Kelly Sautbine. The sophomore ran off seven straight points to open the match, which included a pair of aces.

Norwell never recovered from that deficit, pulling to within three at 19-16 before Jay County took the win on a Sara Hough ace.

However, the Patriots made a variety of mistakes to fall behind 13-6 in the second game on the way to a 21-10 loss, and Norwell’s Ashtyn Humerickhouse took over from there.

Humerickhouse had six of her 15 kills in the third game, and added four more in the fourth as the Knights pulled away to the victory.

Katie Kenline had a team-high 16 digs for Norwell, and Jessica Meyer added four aces. Kenline and Trisha Donaghy each had five kills.

“Norwell is very, very good,” said Medler. “They play defense very well. They have the big hitter (Humerickhouse) and a couple of other tough hitters.”

The Patriots (2-3) had little difficulty in smoking Northeastern as Sautbine and Hough combined to serve them to a 14-2 lead with five of those points coming on aces.

Northeastern was never close in any of the three games as Jay County racked up 17 aces in the quick victory.

Each of the first two games against Marion were close, but the Giants made runs midway through each contest to take control.

The teams were tied at 11-11 in game one when Marion scored five consecutive points and kept at least a four-point lead the rest of the way. Jay County trailed 11-9 in the second game, only to have Marion run off 10 of the next 11 points for a 21-10 win an a two-game advantage.

The Patriots rallied in the third game, finishing the victory on a pair of Markie Runyon kills, but couldn’t dig out of the hole as Marion overcame a 17-16 fourth-game deficit to finish the match.

“The playing with tenacity and playing with belief is the aspect of the game that’s hurt us,” said Medler, whose team made a variety of silly mistakes in the two losses. “We got down mentally.”

Elizabeth Grider paced the Giants with 14 kills, and Tiffany Seacott and Shelby Canterbury each had seven. Canterbury notched a team-high 24 digs, and Kelly Wisser dished out 25 assists.

The Patriots were led again by Hough, who had team highs with 23 kills, 38 digs and 17 points in the three-match event. She also notched seven aces.

Ashley Overla followed 11 kills, 13 points and a team-best five blocks. Erin St. Myers also had 11 kills to go along with 26 digs. Sautbine had 15 points and 12 aces, and Sarah Ainsworth paced the team with 41 assists.

Jay County’s junior varsity team finished second in the round-robin tournament. The JV Patriots scored wins over Norwell and Northeastern before falling to Marion in three sets in their final match.[[In-content Ad]]