Patriots one win away

PONETO — It wasn’t pretty.
But it was another victory.
And the Patriots are one win away from a conference title.
Jay County High School’s volleyball team started poorly Tuesday, but founds its groove in a three-game sweep of the Southern Wells Raiders.
“They were doing some of the same things that other teams do to cause the whole match to be sloppy, that soft, tip stuff,” said Medler, whose team defeated the Raiders 25-20, 25-9, 25-13. “The good part about it I felt is we picked up most of those. A few of them hit the floor, but not like it did (Thursday) against Wes-Del.”
The victory puts the Patriots at 5-0 in the Allen County Athletic Conference, and sets up a match with Heritage on Thursday in Portland for the regular-season ACAC championship. Heritage defeated Bluffton Monday 25-19, 25-14, 25-15.
Both Jay County (17-3) and Southern Wells (6-21, 0-5 ACAC) struggled from the service line in the opening set, as they combined for 11 service errors — six of which were by the Patriots.
Jay County had a five-point lead twice — 10-5 and 11-6 — but saw the advantage shrink to two, 12-10. Back-to-back serving errors by the Rangers and a net violation helped Jay County create some separation, and the Patriots later scored five consecutive points to lead 22-14. The Raiders surged back on a 6-1 run, but a kill by Abby Barcus ended the set.
Barcus finished with 11 kills, and Kylie Osborne followed with 10.
Jay County used a 6-0 run to take control in the second set, and led 13-3 before Southern Wells was able to rattle off a few points.
The Raiders’ Megan Horton notched a kill for the first of three points for Southern Wells. A Jay County set error and a Savannah Ocasio kill cut the Raiders’ deficit to 13-6.
But a Britlyn Dues kill and an Ava Kunkler block on Horton sparked a 7-0 Patriot run and an eventual 25-9 set victory.
“We knew three or four of their hitters could bother us,” Medler said. “We got up a big block and slowed those hitters down. Because of that we took them out of some of the offense they wanted to run.”
The Patriots totaled six blocks, four of which came in the second set.
“Credit our block for slowing down some of that stuff,” Medler said. “Credit our defense for picking up the soft stuff over the top of our block.
“The second game was what I would really have liked to happen, but I didn’t know for sure whether it could, or would.”
Medler played around with the lineup in the third set, giving freshmen setters Kailee Denney and Kendal Garringer some time at the varsity level.
“We wanted to see the two freshmen setters set the ball and we wanted the older kids to take care of them,” Medler said. “The setters struggled a little bit with their hands. We finally told them to relax, put a ball in the air and let the older kids clean it up. That’s what they did.”
Jay County used a run of four or more points on three separate occasions, during which senior Abby Wendel tallied four of her seven kills.
Thursday’s matchup with Heritage will be Jay County’s annual benefit for the Jay County Cancer Society. The East Jay and West Jay middle school volleyball teams will also take part, with a total of 15 teams competing.
The Chief seventh and eighth grade squads will play Heritage, with both sixth grade teams meeting RJ Baskett. West Jay’s seventh and eighth grade teams host Bluffton, with the sixth graders meeting RJ Baskett as well.
All middle school matches will be at 5:15 p.m. in the auxiliary gym. The Jay County junior varsity match is set for 6:15 p.m. with the varsity game to follow.

Junior varsity
The Patriots moved to 12-4 on the season with a 25-13, 25-22 victory against the Raiders.
Denney led Jay County with nine kills, and Shreve added four. Kaelyn Weaver tallied three kills, with Katie Lyons and Hannah Dillon both adding two.
Maggie Pryor and Kendal Garringer led the defense with seven and six kills respectively. Denney recorded four, with Skye Wimmer adding four.
Chloe Trissel had 10 service points, and Garringer totaled 22 assists.