Winona, Minn. - Career days all around led the University of Jamestown women's volleyball team to a four-set win in a road match at Winona State University Friday night at McCown Gymnasium.
Jamestown gets their 15th win of the season with their conference record now sitting at 8-6. Winona State falls to 5-15 and 4-10 in the NSIC.
Attacking errors hurt the Jimmies early in the first set with Winona State going ahead 13-5 to begin the scoring. However, a bit later a 4-0 run ensued by Jamestown which included an ace by Ava Bertsch and a solo block from Caroline Puetz with UJ only trailing 15-12.
A bit later, Mya Foslien had back-to-back kills then Kallyn Grove posted a kill with Jamestown even closer at 19-17 but unfortunately, this was followed by four straight points from the Warriors. Winona State went on to win the first set 25-20.
Attacking efficiency was not there in the set one for Jamestown as they posted only an .095 (10-6-42) team percentage as well as three service errors. The Warriors hit .163 (13-6-43).
Gracie Adamson opened up the third set with three kills to command a 6-4 Jimmies lead, but then Winona State went on a 7-1 surge to get ahead 11-7. The teams were locked even for a while after that, and the score went to 18-14 in favor of the home team.
Right after this though, the Jimmies scored six of the next seven with Puetz leading the way with a pair of kills combined with a block which gave the Jimmies a lead late in the set at 20-19. Five of the final six points of the set belonged to Jamestown after Adamson capped off the set with her fifth and sixth kills of the stanza, and the Jimmies went on to win 25-22.
UJ had a staggering 20 kills in the second set as well as a .333 attacking percentage (20-5-45). The Warriors hit well also at .250 (13-4-36) but they could not quite finish off the Jimmies.
Jamestown used this big momentum from the end of the second set to utterly dominate the third set. It was 5-1 early on, and then the Jimmies went on a torrid stretch in which they scored 16 of the next 19 points. During this run, Addison Ertz had four kills while Adamson and Lempka added two kills and one block each. The Jimmies made virtually no mistakes during this run and UJ was running Winona State out of the gym ahead 22-7.
The home team did not go out that quietly as they scored four straight points to get their set total up to 11, but Jamestown finished the Warriors off with Puetz and Lempka teaming up for a block and a big 25-11 set win as the Jimmies pushed ahead 2-1 in the match.
Jamestown attacked .366 (15-0-41) in an attack-error free third set. The Warriors struggled with an attacking percentage of -.022 (7-8-45) with UJ finishing the set with three blocks as well.
The fourth set was another convincing victory for the Jimmies. They only started ahead 5-4, but went on another 7-1 spurt, this time Ertz paving the way with a kill plus a block while Kate Wiebesiek contributed three set assists to put Jamestown in control ahead 12-5.
This little run early one was all it took with neither side going on any significantly sized scoring runs after this. A slight 7-4 scoring run by UJ finished off the fourth set. Adamson and Ertz added to their already great nights with three kills by Adamson and one by Ertz. Grove also had two kills as the set wrapped up 25-16.
Attacking percentage wise, the Jimmies saved their best set for last after they hit .472 (19-2-36), recording two blocks while Winona State had none. The Warriors hit .222 (10-2-36) in their final set.
Adamson and Lempka paced the team with 14 kills apiece. Adamson had 16 digs as well while Lempka attacked .444 (14-2-27). Ertz had a career night with 13 kills which nearly doubled her previous season high of seven; the sophomore's previous career high was 11 before tonight's match.
Sophie Ketterling tied a career-high with 30 digs making in the only time in her career in which she had 30 digs in a match less than five sets long. Bertsch had a tremendous day as well with 28 assists, 10 digs, and three service aces.
A .311 (64-13-161) attacking percentage was the fifth highest all season while 61 assists tied a season-best for Jamestown. Only 13 attacking errors tied a season-low among four-set matches as well, and 85 team digs was the second-most all season among four-set matches.
The Jimmies will be back at it tomorrow as they face one of the top teams in the nation on the road in No. 7 Concordia St. Paul on Saturday, October 24 at 5 p.m.
