Patriots third in tourney (05/05/08)

ANDERSON - Tiffani Bickel and Cindy Muhlenkamp were the only double winners for the Patriots Saturday as the Jay County High School girls tennis team finished third at the Olympic Athletic Conference tournament.

JCHS defeated Muncie Southside 5-0, but suffered 5-0 and 4-1 losses to Anderson Highland and Connersville respectively. The host Scots won the tournament.

Jay County opened with the loss to Highland, but then swept Southside to give have a chance to finish as the runners-up. But only Bickel and Muhlenkamp were able to win in the team's final match against Connersville.

The Patriot pair, which is now 12-5 on the year, went 2-1 despite Bickel fighting through a couple of injuries.

She slipped on the wet court to hurt her right forearm in their opening match, and then sprained her ankle with a 5-3 lead in the second set against the Spartans' Brooke Jobe and Marissa McClane. JCHS went on to lose that game, but earned a service break in the next game to defeat Jobe and McClane 6-3, 6-4. Bickel and Muhlenkamp won 6-0, 7-5 against Southside, and played the closest match against Highland in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat.

All of the other Patriot victories came against Southside, including three matches in which they gave up just three games. Betsy Knittle earned her first varsity win of the year at No. 2 singles, defeating Tiffany Sanders 6-0, 6-3. Hannah McAbee topped Leah Puckett 6-3, 6-0 at No. 3 singles, and Briann Saxman and Megan Huntsman knocked off Heather Flowers and Chelsea May 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles.

Megan Adams rallied after getting blanked in the first set at No. 1 singles to beat Hannah Hollowell 0-6, 6-4 (10-8).

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