JCHS rolls over Falcons

WINCHESTER - Experience took on youth Tuesday in a volleyball match held at the Winchester Fieldhouse.

As one might expect, experience prevailed.

Jay County High School overpowered the young squad of Winchester Community High School 25-12, 25-12, 25-17, using accurate serving, near flawless defense and some precise setting.

Aside from a late flurry against the Patriots' second unit in the third set, the Falcons never mounted a challenge.

"Winchester has some great kids, but they're young so we kind of wanted to take advantage of that,” JCHS coach Amy Dillon said. "It helped that we were able to scrimmage against them twice over the summer, so we knew where they were weak and I think we did a good job of exploiting that.

"It was nice for us to be able to get some of our younger players into the game."

From the opening serve, it was clear Winchester would have its hands full.

The taller and more athletic Patriots were better at the net and dug out nearly every serve. Jay County's superior serving left the Falcons scrambling to keep volleys alive.

The Patriots finished with a season-best 21 aces, including 12 combined by their senior setter Sophie Saxman and libero Brenna Haines.

Senior front-liner Isabella Denton led the attack game with nine kills. Haines had seven digs, and Saxman led with 19 assists.

"We were great at serve receive and just didn't let balls drop," said Dillon.” Our libero, Haines, did a great job, as did our setter, Saxman. But really, they all played great tonight. I was very pleased."

Winchester, falling to 3-4, lost most of its 2022 starters to graduation and was coming off a hard-fought, five-set win over Knightstown on Monday.

Jay County improved to 2-1, with its lone loss to Delta. The Patriots host Fort Recovery on Tuesday and travel to Class 2A No. 1 Wapahani on Aug. 31.

The JV team also swept the Falcons 25-23, 25-9.

Hallie Schweiterman and Kendel Rowles lead the Patriots with five kills apiece. Setting them up was Ella Rigby, who tallied 13 total assists in the match.

Kayla Jetmore led the defensive effort for Jay County with 10 digs.

Chloe Muhlenkamp scored the most service points of the team with seven. Two of those seven came from aces. Paisley Fugiett also had two aces.