July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Stars defeat Jay Co. (04/26/08)

JCHS/SAHS girls tennis
Stars defeat Jay Co. (04/26/08)
Stars defeat Jay Co. (04/26/08)

By By RAY COONEY-

BERNE - The Patriots have seen this story before.

For the second straight season the South Adams Starfires took a trio of three-set matches against the Jay County High School girls tennis team in handing it a 3-2 defeat.

"It was a hard-fought match," said JCHS coach Roy Adams, whose team won every first set a year ago only to lose 3-2. "It seems like we get that with South Adams every year. I would just like to be on top of it. We were so extremely close, just like we were last year. ...

"Losing 2-3 is tough. It's never fun, but we certainly have positives."

The positives came for the Patriots in the matches where they were able to avoid the dreaded third set. And neither came easily.

At No. 1 doubles, Tiffani Bickel and Cindy Muhlenkamp cruised in the opening set, only to fall behind 5-4 in the second. But they rallied to pull within 5-4, and staved off a double set point for Taylor Miller and Kristi Lehman in the 10th game thanks to a couple of Bickel winners.

The Patriot pair eventually took the game to even the set at five, and went on to finish the match 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) with a volley by Bickel capping the tiebreaker.

"I was extremely pleased with No. 1 doubles," said Adams. "They got down 2-5 in that second set, and we just had a little talk about believing in themselves. And they changed gears ... From there on out they weren't taking any prisoners. They settled down, played their game and walked off the court."

Megan Adams was in a similar situation at No. 1 singles after taking her first set. She faced a 5-3 deficit in the second set, but won the next four games in a row to avoid a tiebreaker.

She finished off her match with a couple of well-placed volleys, chasing Amanda Sprunger of the Starfires to the right with the first and then smacking a winner to the left for a 6-4, 7-5 victory.

"She got it in her head," said coach Roy Adams of his daughter. "This was a day for confidence where she needed to say, 'I'm going to go out there, I'm going to play my game. It's not going to depend on the other girl, it's going to depend on me.' And I think she did that today."

"Both (No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles), to come back like that, is excellent. I'm hopeful that's going to pay dividends as we get into conference and sectional too."

Jay County trailed in each of the other three matches, dropping the first sets before bouncing back in the second. But none of them could keep the momentum rolling to pick up the third point the Patriots needed.

Hannah McAbee came the closest at No. 3 singles, where she was up 5-4 and 6-5 in the third set. However, South Adams' Tori Kistler came back each time, forced a tiebreaker and eventually ended the match 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) to secure the victory for the Starfires.

"Hannah was right there at 5-4," said Adams. "(Kistler) just hit some shots and brought her in (to the net) and hit some winners and got her out of position. That was enough to get her back in the match. ...

"One of the things that helped Hannah get up on a lead was she was hitting deep shots into the wind. And that didn't happen in the tiebreaker. That was the difference. She played more to the front, and (Kistler) capitalized on it."

Rachel Sprunger of SAHS needed a tiebreaker to top Betsy Knittle, in her first varsity action, in the opening set at No. 2 singles. Knittle bounced back for a solid win in the second only to fall 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4.

The No. 2 doubles match was a seesaw affair, with Starfires Emily Steiner and Tara Beitler losing the opening game on a double fault and then winning four straight games to take control. Briann Saxman and Megan Huntsman of JCHS bounced back for a shutout win in the second set, but Beitler and Steiner took another 4-1 lead in the third on the way to their 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 victory.

Junior varsity

Jay County got two shutouts in a 6-4 victory over the Starfires.

Mizuki Saito led the Patriots to the victory with an 8-0 win at No. 3 singles over Lindsey Graber. At No. 6 double, Kellie Howell and Chelsea Kimmel blanked Mallary Eicher and Alex Fox 6-0.

Mariah Clark at No. 1 singles and Kayla Martin at No. 2 singles, as well as the doubles teams of Ashley Caupp and Lissa Sims, and Dezi Clay and Danielle Chenoweth were the other winners for Jay County.

All of South Adams' victories came in doubles action, including a 6-0 victory at the No. 7 spot by Deserea Kirchofer and Kassey Potts of Jeanette Thomas and Melanie White. Other winning teams were Julie Schmidt and Amber Neuenschwander, Rebekah Steiner and Ashton Cressman, and Kara Lehman and Aine O'Donnel.[[In-content Ad]]
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