Swept in the sectional

The Golden Falcons struggled to get past the Patriots in the sectional final in 2014 and ’15.

In each of the last two seasons, the Golden Falcons returned the favor.

Jay County High School’s girls tennis team had its season come to a close in the sectional final Friday, losing to the Winchester Golden Falcons 5-0.

“I thought they played really hard,” said JCHS coach Dave Cramer, whose team has lost four consecutive matches to the Golden Falcons after defeating them for its third straight sectional title in 2015. “It’s just Winchester, they’ve got really good girls.

“We played about as well as we could play, they’re just good.”

A year after winning the program’s first sectional championships, Dave Streeter’s Winchester squad has now taken back-to-back titles.

But he feels the score wasn’t indicative of how the match went.

“I felt they were pretty close this year, too,” said Streeter, whose team played the Patriots in the final for the fourth straight season. Jay County won 3-2 in 2014 and ’15, with the Golden Falcons winning 4-1 last year.

“My kids have got a lot more experience this year,” he said.

Winchester advances to the Marion regional Tuesday against the Delta Eagles, who defeated the Burris Owls 5-0 Friday at home.

The No. 2 doubles match was the closest of the night. Winchester’s Briana Bogue and Kate Hendrickson won the first set against Emily Reier and Besty Muhlenkamp 7-5. The Patriot duo was ahead 3-2 in the second set, but dropped the next two games. Muhlenkamp and Reier then grabbed a 5-4 advantage before Bogue and Hendrickson took the final three games for the set victory.

Reier and Muhlenkamp had a 2-1 lead in the second set, and rode it to a 6-4 victory to force a third as Winchester had already secured the team championship.

Hendrickson and Bogue shook off the loss in the second set and didn’t drop a game to win 6-0 to complete the sweep.

“I don’t know what happened,” Streeter said. “It’s just all the sudden it came together. Happy for us and them, that was great.”

Cramer was pleased with the JCHS juniors battling back after losing the opening set.

“They’ve been struggling and they came out tonight, played about as well as they could play,” he said. “I was impressed.”

JCHS junior Shelby McClain improved one game on Winchester sophomore Mariah Roberts from their No. 1 singles match April 17. McClain dropped the first set 6-3, and trailed 3-1 in set two before winning the fifth game to make it 3-2. But Roberts rattled off three consecutive wins to get a match victory.

Roberts defeated McClain 6-2, 6-2 earlier in the season.

“She played extremely well,” Cramer said of McClain. “But (Roberts) is really, really good.”

Seniors Megan Johnson and Francine Muhlenkamp had their high school careers come to an end at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.

Johnson won her first game, but struggled to keep the advantage in losing set one to Grace Retter 6-1. She stayed near to Retter through the first five games of the second set to trail 3-2. But Retter, a senior who used to be the top singles player for the Golden Falcons, won three consecutive games for the victory.

When they met earlier in the season, Muhlenkamp gave Autumn Dixon all she could handle. Dixon had to battle for a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory.

This time around, Dixon won much easier, 6-2, 6-3

“She played really well,” Streeter said of Dixon. “She is my most improved player this year.”

Similar to McClain, Jay County junior cousins Audrey and Kayla Dirksen improved one game but still came up shy of a victory. Winchester’s Leah Wren and Riley Helms defeated the Dirksens 6-2, 6-3.

“I have some experience at No. 1 doubles and they won pretty easily,” Streeter said.

Cramer touted Streeter and the Golden Falcons for having the Patriots’ number in earning a clean season sweep.

“They have a good coach and that made a big difference,” he said. “They are playing really, really well.”