Jones, New Bremen continue winning ways against Botkins

NEW BREMEN - New Bremen's Paige Jones smiled brightly when asked about her state-record 53 kills in Saturday's win over Fort Loramie.

But in all likelihood, future opponents of the Cardinals aren't smiling at the thought of seeing Jones across the net.

For an encore, Jones had a pedestrian 27 kills in New Bremen's dominating three-set victory over Botkins (25-13, 25-12 and 25-8) on Monday night at Cardinal Gymnasium.

"We have grown leaps and bounds. We still have leaps and bounds to go," first-year New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said. "Paige, in my opinion, is the best player in the state of Ohio, and she proves that every single day. But I think tonight, you also saw that her teammates are pretty good, too."

Indeed.

Julia Goettemoeller had five kills and four blocks and Madison Pape totaled 32 assists for New Bremen (4-0), which finished with 14 team aces and trailed just once in the match, a 1-0 deficit in set three.

Jones was kill-less through the first 12 points of the match but it didn't last long. She went on a spiking spree to finish the set with seven kills, while teammates Rachel Kremer and Macy Puthoff each added a pair of aces as the Cards pulled away.

The Cardinals jumped on top early in the final two sets, rolling out to 7-1 leads in both and finishing strong. A hitting error by Jones gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead in the third set and then the Cardinals reeled off the next seven points - Puthoff had an ace and Goettemoeller had a pair of kills to ignite the run, and Jones eventually ended the match with kill No. 27.

The Cardinals improved to 4-0 with all four of their wins coming against teams from Shelby County (Russia, Lehman, Fort Loramie and now Botkins).

"When (Paige) doesn't get set, her teammates can get up and swing at the ball, too," Kramer said. "Overall as a team this season, we're hitting over .500 as a team. That's just credit to what Paige does, which opens things up, but then her teammates are ready to step up every single play, every single point. That's something we've talked about, being intense, being focused and playing confident."

Jones upped her kill total to 159 kills with Monday's performance, an average of 9.94 kills per set. Her 53 kills on Saturday broke the record of Lexington's Mackenzie Weaver, who had established the mark with 51 kills in a victory over Orrville on Oct. 26, 2015.

"People don't witness that kind of stuff, like, that doesn't happen," Kramer said. "As good a volleyball player as Paige is, she's even a better person, and she's first to credit her teammates."

Jones did quickly praise her teammates when asked about her new record on Monday and admitted she never imagined having a game like that.

For her, though, getting a win over Fort Loramie was just as satisfying.

"To be honest, I didn't even think I had 53 swings in that game," Jones said. "I ended up swinging like 92 times I think. ... I was just thinking do whatever I can to help the team.

"We haven't beat them in like 10 years, and we really wanted to get them this year. Last year, it was close. We just had to keep focused, stay driven and win."