Jay advances to semifinal

NEW CASTLE — It wasn’t a great start. The Patriots came out flat footed.

The slow start led to a quick 4-1 deficit before coach Amy Dillon called a timeout.

After the timeout, the Jay County High School volleyball team came out with more life to take the set and beat the Centerville Bulldogs 25-12, 25-22, 25-22 in the IHSAA Class 3A Sectional 24 opener Thursday at New Castle High School.

With the win, Jay County (16-14) will face off against the Frankton Eagles at 12:30 p.m. today at New Castle in the sectional semifinal.

Centerville (12-16) secured the first point on a ball Mya Kunkler sent too long. The second was a kill by Makenna Hartman.

Jay County got its first point on a hitting error by Chloe Goodman before surrendering two more points on a service error by Brenna Haines and an Ellie Cox ace that dropped in front of Haines and Lainey Muhlenkamp.

By that point, Dillon had seen enough, calling her first timeout.

“We’ve started off the last few games like that in the hole,” Dillon said. “I just asked them, ‘Do you want to win? If you want to win, deserve to win. Don’t just win because you’re the better team. Win because you deserve it.’

“We had a talk in one timeout where I said, ‘Not everybody gets to wake up on Saturday morning and put their jerseys back on, so you need to be thankful that you're probably gonna get to do that, and you need to earn it.’”

The pep talk was exactly what the Patriots needed.

After the slow start, they finished with a 24-8 run, including two runs of six straight points. The run was powered by 12 kills — Kunkler and Bella Denton had the most with three apiece — two blocks, one ace and eight hitting errors by the Bulldogs.

Sophie Saxman was able to spread the ball around as 10 Patriots recorded kills. Whenever Jay County needed a point, she found herself going back to Kunkler and Denton, who both finished with nine kills.

“I trust all of my hitters,” Saxman said. “I know wherever I set it’s going to be fine. … If (Denton and Kunkler) get a block up, nobody is going to be able to hit past them. If they hit a ball down no one is going to block it.”

Along her 23 assists, Saxman had three kills. She had a kill on an attack from a hitter’s approach and two more on quick little dumps when she faked a set.

Saxman also recognized the lack of energy from the team, as they were playing in the cavernous gym.

“When we come out and assume that we can beat a team, the energy is a little bit flat,” Saxman said. “We came out a little bit rough but I think the energy is going to be a lot better on Saturday.”

As Jay County started to extend its bench, Hartman fought to keep the Bulldogs in the match. In the second, set she was responsible for seven points, and another four in the third. She finished with 12 kills and an ace, while hitting 20%.

Hartman’s primary position is listed as a right-side hitter, but she was forced to fill in as the outside-hitter in place of Brooklyn O’Neil who recently tore a ligament in her foot.

While Hartman put together a strong effort, it wasn’t enough for the inexperienced team to overcome the Patriots.

“I thought we played decently,” Centerville coach Jim Basler said. “We had one player who had sectional experience. I have nothing but JV players except for Chloe (Goodman). So, I've had a very, very young team with a lot of girls with little varsity experience except for this year, so it's a learning experience for them.”

A bright spot in the Patriots’ performance was their serving. They were able to keep Centerville out of system the entire night by serving short balls that would threaten to land for aces without the back row crashing in and even diving to the floor.

Brenna Bailey and Muhlenkamp both had a pair of aces and seven service points while Denton led with eight service points.

“(Muhlenkamp) and Bella (Denton) are great placement servers,” Dillon said. “I told the girls ‘we’re going to serve short until they can’t pass it and we need to be ready for an overpass because they are going to be coming forward to pass that ball.’”

While Jay County walked away with the win, Dillion is going to look for her team to pick things up in the semifinal to give them a chance to make it to the championship Saturday evening against the winner of the other semifinal match between Delta and the host Trojans.

“I wish we would have played a little bit better tonight,” Dillon said. “Saturday morning could have a different outcome, and we want to enjoy a win. I'm not sure that I felt like we really enjoyed that win.

“I think we have a lot of work to do (Friday) night before Saturday morning.”