Stars shut out Patriots

BERNE — The first four victories came easily for the Starfires.
The fifth, however, almost didn’t come to be.
Jay County High School’s No. 2 doubles team of Luke Weaver and Evan Van Cise had taken the first set 6-4 and were one game away from earning the Patriots’ only victory of the night.
South Adams juniors Aiden Bahre and Jamison Kistler broke Van Cise’s serve to tie the set at five games apiece.
The Patriot and Starfire tandems split the next two games to go into a tiebreaker, and unforced errors gave Kistler and Bahre the set 7-6 thanks to a 7-4 tiebreaker.
Bahre and Kistler rode the momentum from their comeback victory in the second set to take the third 6-3 and give the South Adams Starfires a 5-0 sweep against the visiting Patriots.
 “They are first-year varsity, so they are still learning how to play competitive,” SAHS coach Cindy Greer, whose team moved to 8-1 (1-1 Allen County Athletic Conference), said of her No. 2 doubles team. “They forget sometimes that they have to fight back. That is part of it, learning to be competitive.”
In the third set — long after the other four matches were completed — Weaver and Van Cise took advantage of a pair of Kistler errors and Weaver slams at the net to even the score at three games apiece.
Bahre served the seventh game, and it went to deuce three times, with he and Kistler taking the advantage all three times. Each time the Jay County duo had a chance to win the point they played too passively, much to the dismay of JCHS coach Scott Miller, who was watching intently from the sidelines.
After returning Bahre’s serve, Van Cise and Weaver crashed the net to put pressure on the Starfire tandem, until Bahre lobbed the match-winning point to the back of the court out of the Weaver’s reach. It put an end to the battle that lasted more than two hours.
“Our mental game is our weakness right now,” said Miller, whose team has lost four straight matches 5-0 after a 4-1 victory Aug. 24 at Union City. The Patriots are now 1-5 (0-1 ACAC). “Even when we’re behind we don’t fight back. We quit.
“That is where we are as a team. We are working every day trying to get better mentally.”
South Adams cruised to victories in the singles matches.
No. 1 singles player David Villarroel defeated Alex Clark in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. After dropping the first set to sophomore David Muselman at No. 2 singles, JCHS junior Jay Houck rallied to make a match out of the second before falling 6-3.
At No. 3 singles, South Adams’ senior Dexter Miller had a 5-0 lead in the first set before Garrett Rodgers won his only game. Miller earned a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
“My singles are my go-to people,” Greer said. “They will be all year.”
At No. 1 doubles, Marcus Teeter and Kam DeLong of South Adams defeated Sok Vormohr and Payton Heniser 6-4, 6-2.
“My No. 1 doubles is very strong, they just have to work together a little better,” Greer said.
Teeter and DeLong had a 3-1 lead through the first four games against Vormohr and Heniser. The Patriot team won three of the final six games, but weren’t able to take control in the second set to force a third.
“We’re going to win some and we’re going to lose some,” said Miller, whose team hosts the Marion Giants at 6 p.m. Thursday. “You just want to see the effort. That is the piece of the puzzle we’ve lost in these last few games.
“We don’t come off the bus prepared. It is part of the learning process. That is what we will talk about in practice (this week). We’ll talk about coming out and being mentally prepared to face your opponent.”

Junior varsity
The Patriots had a better showing than their varsity counterparts in a 5-1 victory against the Starfires.
Conner Benter and Yuri Miyatsu of Jay County picked up victories against South Adams’ Paul Stuckey. Benter won 8-1, and Miyatsu had a 6-3 victory.
Kyler Hudson defeated Zach Teeple 8-6. Teeple then defeated Jason Minnich 6-1 for the Starfires’ only junior varsity win.
Jay County’s Xavier Ninde and Gabe Blankenship both defeated Brayden Collingsworth by the same 8-0 score.