Sophomore spark

It was a quiet night in the Jay County Junior-Senior High School gymnasium.

A late-game, go-ahead block from a sophomore changed that.

Kendel Rowles breathed life into the Jay County High School volleyball team during the third set of a 25-14, 25-22, 25-23 sweep over the Blackford Bruins on Monday.

With the game tied at 22 apiece, Jay County (6-7, 1-2 Allen County Athletic Conference) only needed three points to put Blackford (8-16) away.

Rowles answered the call, leaping to block one of the Bruins’ attacks to give the Patriots a momentary lead.

“(Coach) Amy (Dillon) said get a block, so I needed to get up and do it,” Rowles said. “I was just very excited.”

The set was Rowles’ first varsity experience. Rowles was in the rotational all throughout the third set, recording an early kill and an error as well as two late digs.

After the block, her junior varsity teammates behind the bench filled the previously silent gym with cheering before the rest of the fans started to get involved.

“It was very nerve wracking, but it was fun once I started getting into it,”  said. “It was really hard (to catch up to varsity speed), but I had them all cheering for me, so it was very easy to get pumped.”

Following the block, Blackford’s Sydnee Morris recorded a kill to tie things back up, but the momentum was already in Jay County’s favor. A hitting error by Patience Campbell and a ball handling error ended the set 25-23.

The rest of the third set featured a three- and a four-point run for each team before the Patriots slowly pulled out the victory.

Dillon said  played a big role in finishing off the match with the energy she brought the team and by allowing Bella Denton to become an outside hitter rather than a middle.

“I really liked her out there. I thought that Kendel brought a spunk to our third set that we needed,” Dillon said. “It’s her first time she's been out there so it got everybody over here kind of riled up because she did really well. I was very proud of her.”

The Patriots dominated the first set. They found a lot of success with a defense-orientated lineup that featured Brenna Haines, Brenna Bailey and Lani Muhlenkamp in the back row and Denton, Maggie Dillon and Sophie Saxman up front.

“I think that's our best lineup defensively, because obviously you have the three (defensive specialists),” Haines said. “I feel like we just mesh well, because we talk to each other well.”

That alignment went on a 12-point run to give the Patriots a 20-10 lead. During that run, Blackford committed six errors while Jay County tallied four kills, a block and Haines served up one ace.

The block and three of the four kills came from Denton. She finished with a team-high 11 kills and two blocks.

The Bruins were able to hang with the Patriots during the second and third sets thanks to strong performance from Morris. She was responsible for 15 total points. She had one ace while leading Blackford with nine kills and five blocks.

The Bruins struggled to set themselves up for success, often being out of system after serve receives.

“Just mentally, with our serve receive, they’ve got to be ready,” Blackford coach Lyndsey Ahern said. “They’ve gotta lead and start with that first pass every time.”

Blackford’s Audrey Wilson had a match-high 20 assists, while Saxman led the Patriots with 16.

Defensively, Haines dug out more balls than anyone else, doing so 14 times. Jaelyn Morris had the most for Blackford with 12.

While Dillon was happy with the quick win, she would have liked to see more dominance and energy from her team. 

“I think we can do better with our energy. I thought we were kind of playing a step slow tonight,” Dillon said. “I thought we had spurts that that kind of showed and we were having a little bit of fun and but I really just think we just kind of played a steady quiet game tonight.”

Junior varsity

The Jay County junior varsity team took down Blackford 25-16, 25-14 on Monday.

Maria Hemmelgarn had a team-high three kills in the match. 

Behind her, Hallie Schwieterman, Elizabeth Barnett and Rowels all had two. 

Ella Rigby and Paisley Fugiett combined for 12  assists. Kayla Jetmore led the defensive effort with five digs, and Rigby added four. Jetmore also had five aces en route to 11 service points.