43
Jackson-Milton tames Tigers
Bluejays earn their first ITCL Tier One victory
By brandon judeh
north jackson
The Jackson-Milton volleyball team soared past Springfield High 3-0 Thursday night in an early-season Inter-Tri County League battle.
It was the Bluejays’ first match since joining Tier One of the ITCL and early on they showed their nerves.
With their backs against the wall in the first game, the Jays (4-0) finished off a furious rally that lasted more than one minute to cut the Tigers’ lead to one. Moments later the Bluejays came away with a momentum-shifting 25-22 win, something senior Rachael Obradovich credits with getting her team motivated.
“We always start slow, but we get very excited and pumped up once we get a nice rally going and things roll from there,” she said. “This was really big, we are new to the Upper Tier and we want to give the bigger schools something to talk about and watch out for.”
The momentum carried over into the second game as Jackson-Milton jumped out to a 17-6 lead that featured a dominant 15-3 run.
“We were up early, then we fell flat,” Springfield coach Bill Knight said. “Jackson-Milton did a good job of blocking against our hitters.”
Springfield (5-2) made a small rally to cut the game two deficit to seven, but in the end it was too much of Paije Kiraly and Erica Hughes as the Jays cruised to a 25-17 victory.
“It was a good way to start off, it gives us a lot of momentum to move on and dominate the Upper Tier,” Hughes said.
With the final match winding down and Jackson-Milton down by two, Kiraly helped the Jays finish off a 25-18 third-game win.
“I was able to get some good blocks out there and I think it energized us and gave us the confidence we needed to close out the game,” she said. Kiraly had a dominating night with 16 serving points, 16 kills, 50 sets, 19 assists and five blocks.
It was a special win for Jackson-Milton coach Sue Prozy as she notched her first career win against the Tigers in her 10-year varsity coaching career.
“It’s great to finally get that win, we have always played them competitively and had some close games, but always fell short,” she said.
Several Tigers had big games in defeat. Kennedy Richey led the way with 37 digs, Marissa Buchenic had 15 assists and Elizabeth Thompson scored eight points.
For the Bluejays, Hughes had 15 kills to go along with 26 attacks, senior Maggie Oblinger had four blocks and two assists, and Obradovich did her part with 20 digs, 14 points and three aces.