Patriots beat MCHS

The Patriots haven’t gotten off to the start they wanted.

The doubles teams were itching for wins, especially the No. 2  duo.

Everyone secured a victory other than the Patriots’ season leader in wins.

The Jay County High School girls tennis team cruised to the first three victories and fought to earn a fourth to beat the Muncie Central Bearcats 4-1 Tuesday.

“It feels really nice,” JCHS coach Andrea Garringer said. “I saw a lot of improvements especially from the doubles. I saw a lot more talking and better placement of the ball. I saw a lot of good net play from No. 2.”

The No. 2 doubles pair of Zion Beiswanger and Chloe Ruiz was searching for a win. Their last victory came on April 15 in a match at Winchester.

The duo got off to the start they needed, beating Muncie Central’s duo of Clarissa Jones and Grace Walker 6-4 in the first set. An early three-game deficit resulted in the pair dropping the second 6-3 to force a tiebreaker.

Beiswanger and Ruiz jumped on top of the Bearcats quickly in the super tiebreaker and deciding set by putting together a 5-2 run. Jones and Walker didn’t back down as a trio of volleys, a forehand by Beiswanger that hit the net and a short forehand by Walker that bounced twice gave the MCHS pair the advantage at 6-5.

After that, the Patriots went on a run of their own.

JCHS No. 2 doubles player Chloe Ruiz hits a forehand on Tuesday during the first set of a 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 victory. The win was the first for Ruiz and Zion Beiswanger since April 15. (The Commercial Review/Andrew Balko)

 

Ruiz broke the dry spell with a well-placed backhand that Jones couldn’t handle to get the run started.

A double fault by Walker tied things up at 7-7. She then had a forehand that sailed long to give the Patriot pair the lead. Ruiz placed a volley that couldn’t be reached to get match point and Jones didn’t handle Beiswanger’s serve, giving Jay County the point for at 6-4, 3-6, 10-7.

“It should really help their confidence,” Garringer said. “I switched Zion in a match for Lucie (Henneaux on April 22) but they weren’t ready to play together. So I put Zion back and I think it motivated her to play a lot harder.”

The other doubles duo, Meredith Dirksen and Sophia Sprunger, picked up the first win of the day for Jay County (5-3) as they dismantled Sadie Hanna and Emma Judge 6-1, 6-4.

Brenna Haines made quick work of Isabel Quirk at the No. 1 singles position. Haines dropped the first game to Quirk before rattling off the next six to win the first set. The JCHS senior took the first three games of the second set before slipping up, but got back on track for a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

“It takes me a while to warm up because I need to get a feel of how they play and how I’m going to play,” Haines said. “So I don’t usually do as well in the beginning but once I get a feel I really step it up.”

Brenna Bailey’s 6-1, 6-4 takedown of Taj Isom at No. 2 singles secured the match for the Patriots soon after. She won the match on a forehand that hit the top of the net and died before Isom could run up on it.

Bailey said that assistant coach Donald Gillespie had told her to focus on placing the ball shallow in the court before the final game, which paid off on the final point.

Maggie Dillon suffered the only loss of the day. Muncie Central’s No. 3 singles player Andrea Lopez traded games in the first set before capturing it, but needed a late push in the second to defeat Dillon 6-4, 6-4.

Garringer wants to use this as a launch pad for the team, reflecting on how she felt this was the first time the circumstances of the match allowed for her players’ potentials to shine.

“I think we really needed this for our confidence,” Garringer said. “I feel like just having a nice day, it’s finally showing their true skills without the wind and balls just flying everywhere.”

Junior varsity

The Patriots claimed two of six JV matches against the Bearcats.

In singles play, Henneaux beat Carmen Maxwell 6-3. The only other singles match featured Muncie Central’s Renne Deboy beating Maria Mire 6-0.

Jay County lost all four doubles matches as freshmen Taven Bentley and Lydia Johnson fell 6-5 and seniors Lily Awliya, Anis Edi and Mire let a trio of matches slip away 6-0.