Eagles fly by Patriots

By ANDREW BALKO

The Commercial Review

NEW CASTLE — The Patriots didn’t have a ton of energy in their sectional-opening win Thursday night.

The energy and effort was there in the semifinal. It just wasn’t enough to lift them past the Eagles.

The Jay County High School volleyball team’s season came to a close Saturday, as they couldn’t overcome the Frankton Eagles in a 25-12, 25-23, 22-25, 25-19 loss in the IHSAA Class 3A Sectional 24 semifinal at New Castle.

“I'm really proud of them,” JCHS coach Amy Dillon said. “I know we didn't come out that first set and play very well, which I wish we would have. But we did our homework, and they did what I asked them to do in the last three sets.”

After the Patriots’ 25-12, 25-22, 25-22 win in the opener against Centerville on Thursday, Dillon and her team studied up on Frankton (22-11) to try and create a rotation that would counter its big hitters Holli Klettheimer and Emma Sperry.

At times the rotations worked, resulting in 18 hitting errors from the duo. While Dillon was pleased with how her team countered the hitters, it just wasn’t enough as Klettheimer tallied 26 kills and Emma Sperry had 22. 

“They’re our core,” Frankton coach Beth Sperry said. “In tough matches, you go to them, because they usually take care of the ball and put it away. … Eventually we got winded and tired, and they figured out our offense and they started digging our main hitters, so we had to move the ball around a little more with our offense.”

They also served well for the Eagles, with Emma Sperry recording a match-high four aces and Klettheimer following with two.

Brenna Haines and Brenna Bailey were asked to do a lot of work on the back row for the Patriots (16-15), especially the latter who was matched up with Emma Sperry in the rotation. Haines led Jay County with 29 digs while Bailey had 21. Joining them on the back row defensively were Maggie Dillon (16), Lani Muhlenkamp (13) and Sophie Saxman (10).

The Patriots dropped the first set after an eight-point run gave Frankton a commanding lead of 15-6 that wouldn’t be relinquished.

Jay County refused to give up, making the second set competitive before breaking through in the third. While at times this season the team struggled with passion, effort and belief, that was never a problem as Haines acted as an emotional leader on the floor.

“It was just really important for us to remember all the studying that we did on Frankton before he came here,” Haines said. “We had the tools to win and it was just really important to keep our energy up and just have faith that we could do it.

“I feel like we left everything we had out on the court.”

The Patriots had a 22-19 lead in the second set, but couldn’t close things out as a pair of hitting errors into the net and two kills from both Klettheimer and Emma Sperry secured the win for the Eagles.

The five seniors fueled the JCHS victory in the third set. Outside of one ace from Bailey, every point was scored by an error by Frankton or a kill from one of the seniors. Bella Denton had the most with five, Saxman added three including, the final point of the set on a tip, and an ace, and Haines, Maggie Dillon and Laila Waddell all had one.

Mixing up the offensive approach was key to taking the set.

“They started to get more touches on the ball with their blocks,” Waddell said. “So switching it up and looking for that left corner helped when we found some of their weak spots.”

Jay County started to run out of steam in the fourth set. It had a strong start when Maria Hemmelgarn finished two long points with kills, energizing her teammates. The Patriots kept things up to garner a 12-10 lead.

Frankton refused to drop a second set, as it began a 13-2 run that included eight kills and two aces. Nine points from the run came from the Eagles’ outside hitters duo.

Despite the large run, the Patriots wouldn’t lay down, but rather took three points back before a pair of hitting errors ended the match.

“I fought through, knowing that it could be my last one,” said Maggie Dillon, who played through an injury and started to get fatigued after the second set. “I wanted to win it really bad, so I just kept pushing.”

Amy Dillon set one goal for her team going into the match.

“I just told them, ‘I don't care what the outcome is,’” she said. “‘I don't care if we win or lose. But we have to walk out of the gym, whether it's today or tonight or next Saturday, being happy with the way we've played the very last game.’ So I'm very proud of the way that they played today.”