Jay denied sectional title

After being shut out in the regular-season meeting against the Golden Falcons, the Patriots came out strong Friday night.
They got first-set wins from their top singles player and doubles team.
Looking to win the program’s fourth straight sectional title — and sixth overall — the Patriots were in control of the match early.
They just couldn’t sustain it.
The Jay County High School girls tennis team had four matches go to three sets in a 4-1 loss to the Winchester Golden Falcons in the sectional championship it hosted.
“I feel we were in the driver’s seat at the beginning of the match,” said JCHS coach Susan Garringer, who completed her sixth and final season as coach of the Patriots. “There was a lot of positive stuff going on. It seemed like we had the momentum. It seemed like we were going to get those two (matches) and maybe one of the others.”
Instead, after postseason losses to Jay County in each of the last three seasons — the previous two in the sectional final — the Golden Falcons claimed their first championship.
“It made them awfully happy,” said WCHS coach Dennis Streeter, whose team advances to the Marion regional against Delta, which won its sectional tournament over Muncie Central. “Everybody played pretty well I thought. Both teams were pretty equal.”
Kyra Braun, Jay County’s No. 1 singles player, cruised to a 6-1 win in the first set over freshman Mariah Roberts, but then dropped the second by the same score.
“She played tough, she played hard and she stuck to her game,” Garringer said of Braun, who lost 6-0, 7-5 when she met Roberts on April 18 in Winchester.
Braun dropped the opening game of the third set and was never able to get on top, eventually falling 6-3.
“She played a good player, just did not come out on top tonight,” Garringer said. “She played her heart out and she always does.”
The Patriots’ No. 1 doubles team of seniors Abby Reier and Abby Saxman beat Miranda Winningham and Leah Wren in the first set 7-6 (7-5). They were one game away from dropping that set, but rallied to take the 12th game and never trailed in the tiebreaker.
In the semifinal Thursday against Union City, the Abbys were able to use the lines to their advantage to win points. They had difficulty keeping that same strategy a day later.
“Even though they had success in that first set they didn’t keep the focus is what I guess happened out there,” Garringer said. But after the first set win, they got too tentative and lost the final two 6-3, 6-1.
Unlike her teammates, Megan Johnson lost the opening set 6-2 to Emily White at No. 3 singles, but the Jay County junior won the second 7-5 to force a third.
Facing double-match point, Johnson hit a backhanded, cross-court winner and White hit a shot too long. At deuce, Johnson’s volley went wide to the right and then she hit her next shot long to lose the final set 6-2.
“(White) had trouble getting the win,” Streeter said. “(Johnson) gave her a run for her money.”
Jay County’s only victory of the night came in the final three-set match. At No. 2 doubles, cousins Audrey Dirksen and Kayla Dirksen lost the first set 6-4, but rallied to win the second against Leah Malkey and Shelby Moreland by the same score.
The Dirksens didn’t make many mistakes in the final set, a 6-3 winner after the match was already decided.
“This was a great victory for them because they know they can compete with whoever is out there,” Garringer said of the sophomores. “They have real potential. We just have to touch on the things that need work and they could be really, really strong.”
At No. 2 singles, Winchester’s Grace Retter — she was a two-time regional qualifier as the Golden Falcons’ top singles player — defeated Jay County’s Shelby McClain 6-1, 6-1. Retter didn’t do anything to special with her shots, she simply kept the ball in play and forced McClain into committing errors.
Garringer said despite the 4-1 score, she was pleased with the way the Patriots played against the Golden Falcons considering they lost 5-0 and didn’t win a set earlier in the season.
“We competed much stronger with them and we had the potential to win the match tonight,” Garringer said. “It just didn’t fall that way.”