Sectional revenge

Maggie Dillon was a doubles player in the 2022 season.

She switched over to singles this year. She dealt with a learning curve, going 6-9 on the season (including a five match skid to finish the regular season).

She had her best match when the Patriots needed it the most.

Dillon won at No. 3 singles Wednesday night, giving the Jay County High School girls tennis team a 3-2 sectional semifinal victory over the Winchester Golden Falcons.

“I just think that we wanted it more. I’m really proud of all of them,” JCHS coach Dave Cramer said. “The fact that we could win is a big boost to all of us.”

The host Patriots advanced to play Randolph Southern — the Rebels beat Union City 4-1 in Wednesday’s other semifinal — in Thursday’s sectional championship. They will be seeking their third consecutive sectional title.

Jay County edged Randoph Southern 3-2 in their regular-season meeting May 9.

Jay County’s victory Wednesday avenged a 4-1 loss to the Golden Falcons just five days earlier.

“The loss didn’t surprise me because it was really close during the regular season,” Winchester coach Derek Baker said. “It could have easily flip flopped and that’s what happened tonight.”

Dillon made quick work of Cockerill in the first set, winning 6-3 before trading games to start the second.

With a 4-2 game lead for Dillon, the seventh game dragged on. After Dillon forced a deuce, she had the advantage three times but couldn’t put the game away. She lost her first game point opportunity when Cockerill placed the ball just over the net, allowing it to bounce twice before Dillon could reach it. The next two times, Cockerill refused to make a mistake, resulting in long rallies before Dillon hit the ball out of play.

The game ended with Dillon hitting one forehand and two backhands into the net to give Cockerill the win.

The tough loss didn’t discourage Dillon, who only surrendered one point in the final two games en route to a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

“I knew that if she would have won that set we would go to a third one and it would have been even harder,” Dillon said. “I knew I had to push through this one so I don’t have to suffer the next one.”

Dillon’s match wasn’t the only exciting one. Meredith Dirksen and Sophie Sprunger quickly put themselves in a 5-0 deficit against Isabella Phillips-Kennedy and Miranda Williams at No. 2 doubles.

“I think we didn’t have the greatest mindset to start since we lost the first time playing them but then we really picked it up and started targeting the girls’ weaknesses,” Dirksen said.

“Whenever we get to 5-0 I get down and negative. Meredith yelled at me to pick it up and we turned it around,” Sprunger added.

They then rallied back to force a tiebreaker that they took 7-5 because of a handful of Falcon errors and a pair of Dirksen volleys.

The duo rolled to the victory 6-1 in the second set to win the contest. Sprunger said she and Dirksen did a better job with positioning on the court, especially with Dirksen in front to utilize her length to attack the Falcons with volleys.

“The front girl was the stronger player so I needed to take her out of the game,” Dirksen said. “I didn’t try to hit her but I tried to hit it at her racquet and I really got in her head after that.”

The other win for the Patriots came from Brenna Haines in the No. 1 singles match, as she beat Raegan Staggs 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

“I feel like in the first set I was trying really hard to hit it hard and my serves were not working out for me,” Haines said. “I don’t know but I feel like I got a little bit cocky because I beat her last time, so I went in there expecting to win which I shouldn’t have done and it didn’t work out for me.”

After the rocky start, Haines made some adjustments and controlled the match the rest of the way.

Kaylee and Melana Zimmerman of the Patriots fell to Morgan Lawrence and Mackenzie Meadows in the No. 1 doubles match 6-4, 6-4 despite having leads in both sets. And JCHS No. 2 singles player Brenna Bailey lost 6-0, 6-2 to Reagan Riggin.