Patriots fall to Warriors on senior night

A balanced attack gave the Warriors the first set.

The Patriots hung close for most of the second, but ended up losing that one as well.

By the time coach Amy Dillon recognized the difference it was a tad bit too late.

Jay County High School’s volleyball team fell to the Class 1A No 4 Wes-Del Warriors on Thursday, 25-18, 25-18, 25-19.

“We noticed about in the third set — it took us a little longer to realize why it was so easy for them tonight — part of that is they were running a 6-2 and we were not. We were down a hitter,” Dillon, Jay County’s coach, said. “We tried to make that change at the end when we saw it but it just wasn’t quick enough.”

It marks back-to-back losses for the Patriots (7-8), who travel to Heritage in Monroeville on Saturday for the Allen County Athletic Conference tournament.

Five Warriors recorded at least one kill in the opening set, led by Rayven Luzadder’s four. Kylie Antrim and Olivia Delaney each had two for Wes-Del, which needed three sets to beat the Patriots in a best two-out-of-three match during the Noblesville Invitational on Sept. 11.

Kills from Tori Clements and Antrim, and a Clements ace, helped Wes-Del score five straight points in set one for an 18-10 advantage.

Down 23-13 — its biggest deficit of the night — Jay County scored five straight points on an Abbie Fields kill, a Hannah Muhlenkamp ace and three straight attack errors by the Warriors.

But a Delaney kill and a JCHS attack mishap gave Wes-Del the set.

The Warriors scored the first six points of set two thanks to three straight Clements aces, only to have the Patriots with nine straight points, including three consecutive Brenna Haines aces, for a 9-6 lead. After Wes-Del scored three straight to tie the set, the score was tied at every point from nine through 14.

A Madison Brunswick block and another Haines ace — she finished with a team-high four — gave Jay County a 16-14 lead ahead of a six-point run for Wes-Del that Jay County never recovered from.

“I think our serve reception isn’t the best,” Dillon said. “It’s definitely an area we need to work on. They are good at picking out someone that’s just made an error.

“Last night we worked on scrambling … other teams make that look so easy. We still need to work on that. We kind of freak out when we’re scrambling.”

In set three, Wes-Del notched four aces, including the match winner from Hope Toney. The Warriors scored the first point and never trailed in the final set of the night.

Dirksen led the Patriots with 11 kills, and Fields was second with four. Brunswick chipped in two kills.

Kylie Klopfenstein finished behind Haines with three aces, and Haines tallied a team-best 14 digs. Izzy Rodgers notched 16 assists.

Antrim led Wes-Del with 10 kills, Clements had five kills and five aces.

Jay County’s six seniors — Grace Brewster, Ralyn Chaffins, Klopfenstein, Dirksen, Muhlenkamp and Rodgers — were recognized following the match for senior night. Dillon, in her second year with the team and the group’s third coach in four years, said their leadership is going to be difficult to replace.

“This group is going to be hard to lose,” she said. “We have some quiet juniors and sophomores. This group is definitely my leading group so hopefully someone can step up and fill those shoes next year.”



Junior varsity

Jay County bounced back from losing the second set for a 25-23, 26-24, 15-11 win against Wes-Del.

Bella Denton led the Patriots with 10 kills while also adding two blocks. Maggie Dillon and Kiley Williams were second with seven kills apiece, and Dillon chipped in nine service points — including three aces — and seven digs.

Sophie Saxman led the team with 15 assists and 11 service points. Brenna Bailey’s 11 digs were tops on the squad.