Venue doesn't Matter to Patriots (05/21/05)

MARION — They could change the venue, but they couldn’t change the result.

Playing at Matter Park instead of Marion High School, the Jay County Patriot girls tennis team earned a berth in the sectional championship match for the fifth straight season with a 5-0 victory over the Mississinewa Indians Friday night.

“What can you say, it’s a win,” said JCHS coach Jerry Klopfenstein, whose team defeated Blackford 4-1 in first-round sectional action at Marion High School Thursday night before heading to the north side’s Matter Park. “It’s good to be in the finals and play Marion.

“I know the goods are there (to beat Marion), it’s just getting them to play with the season on the line. If they want to go out winning a sectional, that’s what they’ve got to do.”

Jay County (7-8) will return to Marion High School today to take the three-time defending champion Marion Giants for the title at 10 a.m. Marion played at the high school Friday night, earning their championship berth with a victory over Madison-Grant.

The Giants have won 12 of the last 13 sectional championships, with only the Patriots breaking that streak in 2001.

Mississinewa never threatened to stop the annual Jay County vs. Marion finale as the Patriots dominated sectional play to lock up the victory.

Whitney Schemenaur, Erin St. Myers and Julie Sours all cruised through their first sets with perfect scores.

St. Myers remained perfect in the second set for a 6-0, 6-0 sweep over Kim Eads. The win pushed her record to 13-3 on the season at No. 2 singles.

Sours, who finished the first-set shutout even after falling behind 40-15 in the sixth game, gave up a few games in the second. Still, she was unchallenged by Kortney McLouth and won the match 6-0, 6-2 when McLouth made back-to-back unforced errors.

Schemenaur’s second set at No. 1 singles started off a bit shaky as she fell behind 3-2. However, she did not drop another game, completing the singles sweep with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Ashley Eakins.

“It really helped the singles taking the first set. Across the board we had a sweep. We’ve never had that,” said Klopfenstein. “I know the singles are fired up.”

Jay County’s doubles teams to a bit longer to seal their victories as both the No. 1 pair of Brianne Morrical and Chelsea Reff and the No. 2 duo of Stephanie Homan and Carissa Wilkins played three-setters.

Morrical and Reff were on the brink of elimination after losing the first set 6-4. But, they went to a tie-breaker with Stacey Koontz and Angel Warran in the second set and came through with the match on the line.

The pair took each of the first three points and cruised to at 7-2 tie-breaker victory, finishing it off on a lob winner by Reff.

They dropped the first game of the third set and trailed 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4, but rallied when it counted. They won each of the final three games, breaking Koontz’s serve at love on a double fault to complete the 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 victory.

Homan and Wilkins took the opposite route to a third set in their match, winning the first set 6-4 before dropping the second 7-5. They also trailed 1-0 and 2-1 in the deciding set, but won back-to-back games for a 3-2 lead and never trailed again. They earned a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win when a shot by the Mississinewa pair of Casey Koontz and Brandy Coleman went long.

“They stuck with it and kept doing the things they needed to do to win,” said Klopfenstein, adding that a 5-0 victory can do nothing but help heading into the title match. “It keeps the momentum going.”[[In-content Ad]]