TOURNEY CHAMPS

MONROEVILLE — One point away from winning the tournament championship, Jay County junior Alli Campbell entered the game to serve.
She put the ball in play, and the host Heritage Patriots went right back at her with their attack.
Campbell stuck her arms out for her third and final dig of the night and Lizzy Schoenlein set the ball to Abby Barcus at the left side of the net.
Barcus, who already had 25 kills on the night, rifled a shot off the Heritage block and out of bounds.
She then dropped to her knees, screamed and was bombarded by her teammates both on the court and the bench.
For the second time in eight days, the Jay County High School volleyball team was Allen County Athletic Conference champion.
After a deflating 28-26 loss to even the match at one set apiece Thursday, Jay County held off a pesky Heritage squad in the third and final set for a 25-22 victory, finishing a perfect season against ACAC opponents.
“Just a good win,” said JCHS coach Fred Medler, whose team beat South Adams 25-20, 25-20 in the semifinal earlier in the evening before holding off Heritage 25-13, 26-28, 25-22. “Good, team effort.
“We just had some big plays out of people. None bigger than the two Alli Campbell dug cross-court hard. Those two plays were huge for her.”
Emilie Walter, one of four seniors on the squad, said winning both conference championships is an amazing feeling.
“We’ve really come together as a team,” said Walter, who had a team-high 2 1/2 blocks. “We’ve been really strong. It takes a lot of mental focus to get through this and we did it together. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Thursday was a stark contrast from the first time the two teams met in a battle of Patriots on Oct. 1 in Portland. Jay County (24-3), which reached its highest win total in Medler’s two-decade career, dropped the first set but dominated the final three for the regular season crown.
Despite losing the first set 25-13, Heritage was simply a better team this time around.
“I think tonight, this is what I wanted to see from us,” said Heritage coach Steve Walter, whose team fell to 19-5. “We made too many mistakes but overall it was a different team.
Obviously game two, it was very inspirational coming back … I was hoping it would bring us momentum in the third game but unfortunately I think it exhausted us a little bit.”
Jay County trailed 12-11 in the second set — the first time the visiting Patriots were behind on against Heritage — but an attack error by Heritage and back-to-back kills by JCHS senior Kylie Osborne put her team ahead 14-12.
Jay County was able to extend the lead to as much as 23-19, which forced Walter into taking a timeout. They split points to put Jay County one point away from the championship, but a serve error sparked a run of four consecutive points for Walter’s squad.
The visitors were serving for match point two more times, but two quick kills from Makalah Krick put Heritage ahead, and a block by Emma Scheumann gave Heritage the middle set.
“We were up in game two and the kids started to celebrate a little early. Not the kids on the court but the ones on the bench,” Medler said. “Lo and behold, back came Heritage and we played not to lose. All the sudden they were right there with us.
“They got game two, which fired them up. Then it was just a dogfight from then on.”
But before the decisive third set, the visiting Patriots had to regroup.
“We just knew we were going to have to start fighting and that they were going to come back really confident,” said Barcus, who had a match-high 26 kills and added nine digs. “We were just going to have to come out strong.”
Barcus and the Patriots had a 13-7 lead in the third set, but another Krick kill cut the deficit to five. Barcus notched kills as Jay County took three of the next five points for a 16-10 advantage. Abby Wendel recorded one of her dozen kills as Jay County started to flex its muscles to get ahead 18-10.
Wendel had a team-high 13 digs, and was 19-of-22 from the service line.
But like Heritage had in the second set, it came roaring back, scoring six consecutive points thanks to three kills from middle hitter Haley Hoffman.
The host Patriots tied the set at 20, but a set error and consecutive kills from Barcus put JCHS two points away from victory.
Back-to-back points from Krick cut the deficit to 23-22. Yet another Barcus kill gave Jay County the chance to serve for match point, then Campbell came through with the big dig that led to the final point.
“I give Jay County credit, they are a hell of a team,” Walter said. “They went out there and battled. Just when I thought they were on their heels they came back, righted the ship and won the (match).”

Semifinal
Just like the regular season, Jay County was challenged by South Adams but still walked away with a victory.
South Adams (17-10) had a brief 9-7 lead in the first set thanks to a run of five straight points. The score was tied at nine, 11, 12, 14 and 15 before a 5-0 Jay County run put the set out of reach.
The Starfires started the second set stronger, leading by as many as four points on five separate occasions. But another five-point run gave Jay County momentum that it never gave up.
Madi Wurster and Morgan Alberson led South Adams with five kills apiece. Alberson also had nine digs. Julia Grabau tallied 12 assists.
Osborne and Barcus paced Jay County with nine kills each. Abby Wendel followed with seven.
Schoenlein tallied 25 assists before racking up 40 in the final.