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The Patriots have yet to reach the type of tennis their coach believes they are capable of achieving.

But they were able to pick up a victory in the final match before a two-week stretch that includes all three of their conference matches and the Patriot Invitational.

Jay County High School’s boys tennis team dominated at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions Tuesday evening as they defeated the sectional rival Randolph Southern Rebels 4-1.

“It was a W,” said JCHS coach Donald Gillespie.

The victory pulled the Patriots to 4-6 on the season.

“Yeah, it’s a win, but I saw a lot of flat feet, not a lot of movement.

“I saw some stuff we’re going to need to correct. We’re not going to be able to beat other teams if we play like that. …

“We’re going to have to play a lot better Thursday night, definitely Saturday.”

Jay County will host Bluffton in its Allen County Athletic Conference opener Thursday. It hosts the Patriot Invitational on Saturday, with matches against other ACAC rivals Adams Central on Tuesday and South Adams on Sept. 21.

Gillespie said he was most pleased with the effort from Eli Dirksen, who swept Jackson Latello of Randolph Southern at No. 2 singles. Dirksen and Latello were trying to match each other power-for-power, with Dirksen most frequently coming out on top. 

Latello put up a strong fight in the final game, bouncing back from a 30-love deficit to force deuce six times. But Dirksen finally connected on a winner to the left corner and then smacked a serve that Latello could not return to finish off his 6-0, 6-0 victory.

“His serve was really good,” said Gillespie. “He was more consistent with his first serve. He was not double faulting and his groundstrokes were good. ...

“Their match was a lot better. There was a lot of movement.”

Jay County’s No. 1 doubles duo came back together after splitting up for last week’s match against Marion when Sam Myers shifted to the No. 3 singles spot.

After getting warmed up with a 6-2 victory over Ian Vance and Braden Austin in the first set, Gage Sims and Myers stormed through the first five games of the second. Austin and Vance scored the first point of the next game, but a couple of double faults put the Patriot pair firmly in control. Two points later, a Randolph Southern shot went long as Myers and Sims finished off the 6-2, 6-0 win.

“I thought we played fairly well,” said Myers. “We gave up two games — shouldn’t have happened — but we’ll always progress. I know that.”

“I feel like we’re starting to progress a lot more than we had been since the start of the season,” agreed Sims. “So I’m feeling pretty confident moving forward.”

Isaac Miller and Luke Muhlenkamp were back together again at No. 2 doubles after Miller had bumped up to play the No. 1 spot with Sims against Marion. They won 6-1, 6-1 over Wyatt Brown and Coltin Gingerich of the Rebels.

“They played decent,” said Gillespie. “If you ask them, they didn’t play as well as they should.”

Abraham Dirksen gave the Patriots their fourth point of the evening as he finished off a hobbled Vance Taylor. After taking the first set 6-1, Dirksen served the first game of the second at love to take control. He was up 5-1 before Taylor broke his serve, but then took the next game when the Randolph Southern senior was hobbled by a twisted ankle and committed several unforced errors.

Liam Garringer suffered the only loss of the evening in the No. 3 singles match. He fell 6-2, 6-0 to Rebel sophomore Noah Allen.

“He’s been doing pretty good,” said Randolph Southern coach Kyle Good of the former doubles player. “And I think, honestly, playing doubles first and then transitioning to singles is actually a pretty good deal because you get guys that are used the playing doubles that don’t mind going to the net and doing overheads. A lot of singles players like to stay back on the baseline.”