Jay knocks off Jets, again

The Patriots had just dropped the first set 25-22 to the Flying Jets and needed to regroup.
In the huddle after the defeat, the message amongst the Jay County High School volleyball team was simple.
“We just told each other to pick it up, go out there and play our game because we were playing to our competition,” JCHS senior Abby Wendel said. “They were giving us a lot of short stuff we weren’t ready for. We told each other to go out there, communicate and just … play.”
Wendel and her teammates responded and rattled off three consecutive wins (25-21, 25-11, 25-23) Tuesday night to defeat Adams Central, which is ranked ninth in Class 2A.
“Huge win,” said Jay County coach Fred Medler, whose team moves to 14-2 on the season and 3-0 in the Allen County Athletic Conference. The Patriots sit in first place in the conference, but Heritage and South Adams are both 2-0 as well. Jay County plays at South Adams on Tuesday and hosts Heritage Oct. 1.
“At least this puts us in the place that if we go clean the rest of the way before Heritage, then that is going to be a good game,” said Medler, whose team has defeated three ranked opponents this year. Jay County beat Class 2A No. 5 Madison-Grant on Aug. 18, and beat then-Class 2A No. 1 Wapahani on Sept. 3.
But Jay County had to get through Adams Central first, and after the opening set the opportunity to get back-to-back sweeps — the Patriots earned a 3-0 win last season in Monroe — against the Jets was out of the picture.
Adams Central had a 6-5 lead early in the second set, but Jay County scored the next four points on the serve of Abby Barcus. The Patriots pushed their advantage to 13-9, then 17-13 forcing ACHS coach Ashley Beard to call a timeout. The Jets never got closer than two points for the remainder of the set.
 “I think we thought we would come out and, not run them off the floor, but play well and probably defeat them pretty easily,” Medler said. “They were just too scrappy for that.”
Especially in the second set, the Jets made a few nice digs to keep the score close. The lead never reached five for either team in the first two sets.
The third, however, didn’t follow the same format as the previous two.
Jay County nabbed the first three points, and led 7-3 early on. Adams Central scored back-to-back points thanks to an attack error by the Patriots and a kill from junior middle hitter Kayla Bahrke. The 7-5 deficit was the closest the Jets would get in the third set.
The Patriots scored three straight points — two on aces by junior Audrey Shreve — and the Jets took two of the next three points.
Then the offense started clicking for Jay County. With an 11-7 avantage, Barcus tallied two of her game- and career-high 25 kills, the latter of which started a streak of 10 consecutive points with Britlyn Dues at the service line.
Dues, who also had a couple key digs in the set, served all 10 points, but a Jay County attack error on the potential set-winning point ended her streak. The Patriots closed the third set on a 14-4 run.
“There (were) just some people who stepped up when they stepped on the court after sitting the bench,” Medler said, noting the serving of Shreve and Dues.
“Despite game (three) … I feel like we played really well,” Beard said. “We knew they were going to be tough.”
 Beard’s squad never gave up, taking an 8-0 lead to open the fourth set. Four of those points were because of Jay County mistakes.
Instead of calling a timeout to try to slow down the Jets, Medler opted to continue play and let the girls work through the deficit.
Back-to-back tips by Barcus and Lizzy Schoenlein gave Jay County a quick two points, and the Patriots later scored four straight to trail 11-9 and force a Beard timeout.
Like it had between the first and second sets, Jay County used the timeout to regain composure and turned things around.
“That’s what we were saying the whole time,” senior Emilie Walter said. “We need to pull it together like we know how (and) not play to that level.”
With the score later tied at 12, Kylie Osborne — who had been quiet for most of the match until that point — stuck out her right arm on an Adams Central attack for a dig near the right sideline to keep the ball in play, and the Patriots took the lead on the point with a Jet attack error.
“At that point in time we needed some big plays,” Medler said. Osborne later added three consecutive kills to help put the game away.
The score was knotted up at 13 and again at 14, until the Patriots took a 16-14 lead and never trailed again.

Junior varsity
Jay County fought off Adams Central to the tune of a 25-23 victory in the first set.
It had a much easier time in the second.
The Patriots won the second set 25-15 for the sweep of the Jets.
Olivia Kunkler had a team-high six kills for the Patriots. Hanna Dillon, Sarah Walter and Shreve all added three.
Maggie Pryor had six digs, with Kendal Garringer and Randi Ferguson both adding two aces.