Short vs. Starfires

Brenna Bailey was part of another nail-biter.

After needing both a tiebreaker and a super tiebreaker to decide her season opener, she gave South Adams’ Ava Kinsey a workout in their No. 2 singles match.

Bailey was unable to hold the lead, losing to Kinsey 7-5, 4-6.

The loss was the nail in the coffin of Jay County High School girls tennis team’s 3-2 defeat to the Allen County Athletic Conference rival South Adams Starfires on Monday night.

To start the match, Bailey was looking good, gaining an early 1-0 lead and growing it to 5-4 with an opportunity to win the set.

Kinsey was able to rally for her first lead of the set at 6-5. To begin the final game, Kinsey forced three errors on Bailey’s forehands that crashed into the net and the fence as well as a ball she backhanded out of play far right. The final score of the first set came on a well-placed ball that Bailey couldn’t get to for the 7-5 loss.

“I do really good my first set and I think I just get too comfortable and the other team is trying to win too,” Bailey said. “She just returned everything that I really had to give.”

Bailey got down early in the second with a 2-0 deficit.

After climbing back to within 5-4, she had an early lead on what would be the final game of the set. Kinsey missed a forehand that rolled off her racket and hit a ball short into the net to make the game 30-love in favor of Bailey. Eventually, Kinsey worked her way back to a deuce situation when a backhand from Bailey missed the right and a shot to the back corner from Kinsey sealed the deal 6-4.

The Starfires (2-2, 1-0 ACAC) got off to an early team lead, as they quickly won the No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles matches.

Grace Barkley topped Jay County’s Maggie Dillon 6-2 in both sets to earn South Adams the first win of the day.

Chloe Summerset and Lexie McKibbens also took care of Kaylee and Melana Zimmerman in the No. 1 doubles contest. The twins put up some resistance in the first set, losing 6-4, before things fell apart in the second, falling 6-1.

“I was kind of disappointed,” Cramer said. “I thought we were gonna win this. We had a couple let downs.”

While the Patriots (4-2, 1-1 ACAC) ended up losing the match, they picked up wins in the No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles contests.

Haines won the first set 6-1 against South Adams’ Samantha Weigel. Her strategy was to play conservatively and focus on not inflicting mistakes of her own.

“I was trying to focus on keeping it in and letting her make the mistakes,” Haines said. “I think that worked really well because when I try to hit it really aggressive and hard it doesn't really work for me.”

Haines jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but wavered in the middle when Weigel tied things up 4-4. She pulled through in the end, winning the next two games to take the set and the match.

Meredith Dirksen and Sophie Sprunger’s match started slower as they lost the first set 6-4 to Maggie Nussbaum and Malina Mawhorr. After the set, they got some advice from assistant coach Kendra Muhlenkamp.

“Coach Kendra told us to use the front with Sophie's speed in the back,” Dirksen said. “So we really just figured out how to use the court in the second and third matches.”

That was all that the duo needed, winning each of the next two sets 6-2.

The loss puts the Patriots’ hopes for a conference title in jeopardy. Jay County currently sits in third place behind Adams Central (1-0 ACAC) and South Adams. To earn a share of the conference title, they will need to win their match against the Jets next Thursday and get a South Adams loss to either Adams Central or Bluffton.

The Patriots will host sectional rivals Union City and Winchester before taking on Adams Central at home on May 4.