Patriots overmatched

Delta is not a team one can afford to make too many mistakes against.
A team of that caliber will make opponents pay.
Jay County High School’s volleyball team found out first hand Thursday night that the Class 3A No. 4 Eagles will take advantage of every opportunity given to them.
“We knew they were going to be good,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler, whose team was swept 25-17, 25-13, 25-8 on its home court. “I was pretty sure they would be good at offense. They’re not only good at offense at the net, but they were good at offense behind the serving line and bringing it to us.
“Those two parts of the game they just controlled.”
Simply put, Delta (1-0) overmatched Jay County (2-1).
“One of our keys to the match was spreading the offense between our five hitters,” Delta coach Heidi Zickgraf said. “I thought we did that really, really well to keep them off guard.”
It was a combination of senior outside hitters Audrey Woodin and Kaylee Nichols who gave the Patriots the most trouble. They had nine and seven kills respectively, and their strength at the net was too much for the Patriots.
Delta got its first two points in game one with Nichols hitting through Jay County’s blocks. It led 5-2 before the Patriots scored four straight points to take a 6-5 advantage.
Jay County did not have the lead for the rest of the match.
A pair of Patriot errors helped the Eagles to three points before JCHS senior Abby Wendel notched her only kill of the night.
But Delta ran five straight points thanks to back-to-back aces for a 13-7 lead to force a Jay County timeout, and outscored the hosts 9-4 out of the break. Delta eventually took the game 25-17.
The Eagles’ groove carried over to game two, as did the Patriots’ struggles on defense.
“It didn’t matter who they set it up to, they hit the ball pretty well,” said Medler. “Our block was challenged and our block struggled.
“Our defense behind the block struggled because of that.”
Delta jumped to a 3-0 lead to start game two before Jay County got on the board with a quick tip by Lizzy Schoenlein. Patriot junior Abby Barcus — she led Jay County with nine kills and shared the team-high five digs with Schoenlein — slammed a kill through Delta’s defense following a block by Kylie Osborne to get Jay County to within one point.
Zickgraf said it was her goal for Delta’s defense to limit the effectiveness of Barcus, the focal point of the Patriots’ offense.
“If you can just contain her, get her out of system and make them slow down a little bit you’re going to be in good shape,” she said.
Jay County’s ensuing serve hit the net — the Patriots were 79.5 percent from the service line — giving the ball back to Delta, which then turned it into a 12-2 run for an eventual 16-5 advantage.
The Patriots nabbed four of the next six points thanks to kills from Barcus and Osborne, but Delta took seven of the final 10 points to win the game.
Osborne finished with four kills, and Ava Kunkler added three.
The Eagles were in control for most of game three as well, leading 20-8 at one point before Jay County cut the deficit to eight, 21-13.
Delta got the next three points thanks to a block, a Jay County attack error and a kill by Nichols to serve for match point.
Delta had two attempts at the potential game-winning point miss wide, and an ace gave Jay County four consecutive points.
And like it had hurt the Patriots for most of the game, a service error gave the Eagles the final point.
“We did not serve well tonight,” said Medler, whose team hosts Marion, Anderson and Northeastern in the Patriot Invitational at 9 a.m. Saturday. “You have got to be aggressive. We were slightly timid.
“It is just one of those things where we’re not at their level, at least at this time of the year. They outplayed us.”

Junior varsity
The Patriots were not as overmatched as their varsity counterparts, but still suffered their first loss of the season 25-23, 25-21 to the Eagles.
Hannah Dillon paced the offense for Jay County (2-1) with three kills. Olivia Kunkler and Hanna Ault had two kills apiece.
Kendal Garringer and Maggie Pryor had four digs each to lead the defense. Ault added three digs, and Sarah Walter tallied two.