Patriots' depth leads to title

At the beginning of the season, Jay County High School volleyball coach Fred Medler didn’t want to have too many players on his roster.
He felt some might not get much playing time.
After the Jay County Invitational on Saturday, Medler was thankful he kept all 26 players.
Juniors Abby Barcus and Lizzy Schoenlein — two players expected to barely leave the court this year — were both injured. Barcus was out with a foot injury she suffered Thursday, and Schoenlein missed the tournament after getting hit in the head during warm ups.
Without two of their most important pieces to a record-setting season in 2014, the Patriots still went undefeated to win their tournament for the third straight season.
“(Saturday) is a perfect example of why I kept them,” said Medler, whose team moved to 5-1 on the season with victories against the Marion Giants (25-15, 25-13), Northeastern Knights (25-9, 25-21) and Anderson Indians (25-12, 25-21).
The Patriots made easy work of the Giants in the tournament opener, and looked to cruise to a second consecutive win by taking the first set against the Knights with ease, 25-9.
But the visually different Jay County team struggled to put Northeastern away in the second game.
The Knights got out to an early 9-3 lead, including a run of seven straight points thanks to five Patriot errors. A kill by JCHS senior Ava Kunkler ended the streak, and then she served up three straight aces to get her team within three, 10-7. Jay County took a brief 15-14 lead later in the game, only to have the Knights score three straight points for a 17-15 advantage.
With Audrey Shreve on the serve, the Patriots tallied six straight points for a 25-21 win and a two-set sweep.
“We obviously had our lineup jumbled today, but in the second games we had them jumbled even more,” said Medler, whose team travels to Winchester at 6 p.m. Tuesday. “We hadn’t put them on the court a lot together in those arrangements.”
And like they did with Northeastern, the Patriots had a tough time putting away Anderson in the second set after easily taking the first 25-12.
The Indians scored the first four points of the set on Patriot errors, then rattled off back-to-back kills and a block for a 7-2 lead. Jay County cut the lead to three, 8-5, but saw it reach at least five points three more times, 10-5, 11-6 and 13-7.
Jay County used a 7-1 run to tie the game at 14, then Anderson had a quick 4-1 swing for a lead yet again.
Patriot sophomore Chloe Trissel notched one of her three kills on the day to end the run, and her team evened the score yet again at 18.
Anderson nabbed the next two points on an attack and block mistake by the Patriots’ Kaelyn Weaver. The sophomore tallied one of her five kills on the next point and an Anderson error tied the score yet again, this time at 20.
A service error gave the Indians a 21-20 advantage, but the Patriots scored the next five points, including back-to-back aces by Shreve, to get the win and the tournament championship.
“Shreve played really well,” said Medler. Shreve had five kills, was 12-of-13 from the service line and accounted for 10 points. Medler also noted the play of Britlyn Dues, who had 16 kills to share the team high with Kylie Osborne. Dues also recorded nine digs and three aces.
“Kids that may struggle to see playing time this year — and we told them that — when we ask them to step on the court and play, they get up and do it,” Medler said.
Kunkler had 15 kills as the only other Patriot to reach double digits. Abby Wendel had a team-high 10 digs, and Katie Lyons tallied 31 assists in the absence of Schoenlein.

Junior varsity
Jay County didn’t lose a single set in going 3-0 to win the Jay County Invitational.
The Patriots knocked off Marion 25-3, 25-6 before disposing of Northeastern 25-9, 25-12. Jay County (5-1) then defeated Anderson 25-23, 25-16 for a clean sweep in the tournament.
Sophomore Hanna Ault led all Patriots with 16 points. She also had five aces and a block.
Freshman Olivia Kunkler tallied 13 kills, and Sarah Walter chipped in with eight.
Alayna Aparicio, a sophomore, posted team highs in aces (nine), digs (seven) and points (34) while going 37-of-43 from the service line.
Freshman Kendal Garringer was a perfect 33-for-33 serving.