Denton leads spikers to conference victory

PONETO — Things haven’t always been smooth sailing for the Patriots this season.

Their most recent Allen County Athletic Conference match they made it look easy.

It only took the Jay County High School volleyball team the minimum amount of sets to take out the Southern Wells Raiders 25-13, 25-13, 25-9 on Tuesday.

Bella Denton had a strong offensive performance. She ended with 10 kills and five aces while garnering 14 service points. Matching her in service points was Brenna Haines and in aces was Maggie Dillon.

Behind Denton in kills were Mya Kunkler and Sophie Saxman with four each. Saxman also had 21 assists.

The Patriots (9-11, 2-3 ACAC) will host Heritage tonight for their final home match of the season and senior night.

The junior varsity team also swept the Raiders 25-16, 25-2.

Lydia Johnson and Kendel Rowles both had a team-high four kills. Both Kayla Jetmore and Maria Hemmelgarn had five aces in the match. Running the offense as setters were Ella Rigby (10 assists) and Carley Trinidad (three).

Dirksen shuts out

HARTFORD CITY — The Jay County girls soccer team shut out the Blackford Bruins 5-0 Tuesday.

The Patriots (5-8-1) had a new goalie, with Meredith Dirksen protecting the net. She recorded seven saves.

Aixa Lopez got the scoring started for Jay County when she found the net after only 5:29 of play. Morgan DeHoff added a second at 28:33.

Jenna Dues scored her sole goal of the game near the midway point in the half. Molly Muhlenkamp assisted the play.

Lopez and DeHoff both scored in the second half. DeHoff scored unassisted with 17:12 remaining while Lopez received an assist from Jayla Huelskamp to score the final goal at 4:18.

Schoen shoots low

OTTAWA, Ohio — The Fort Recovery girls golf team’s season came to a close Tuesday as it tied for sixth-place in the sectional tournament at Moose Landing Country Club.

Minster earned the sectional crown with a score of 384. Joining Minster in the district tournament will be Parkway (425) and St. Henry (426) as the top three teams qualify for a district berth. The Indians shot a 470 to tie with St. Marys Memorial for the sixth-place finish out of 13 teams. The Roughriders’ fifth golfer broke the tiebreaker.

Ella Schoen had the best day of all Indian golfers, shooting a 106 to tie for 15th with Grace Beyke of St. Henry. She was 12 strokes off of a chance to move to the district tournament as an individual, as the top three golfers not on qualifying teams advanced.

The other three scores for Fort Recovery came from Brynn Stammen (119), Olivia Knapke (122) and Eva Kahlig (123).

Emma Will’s 132 did not count towards the team score. Ava Klosterman of Memorial edged her by three strokes for the tiebreaker.

Patriots sweep

PONETO — The Jay County junior high volleyball team swept the Southern Wells Raiders 25-23, 25-19 Tuesday.

Three players — Amelia Heath (four) and Brenna Ruble and Emalyn Homan (one apiece) — had kills for the Patriots.

Homan also had team highs in points (eight) and aces (four). She also had an assist.

Kenady Lyons matched her with eight service points, one being an ace, while recording a team-high five assists.

The only other players to serve aces were Heath with two and Gabi Petro with one. Petro also had a dig.

Ruble led the Patriots (10-6) with two digs in the match.