Jamestown, N.D. – The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team gave themselves a significant boost to their NSIC playoff chances are they handled Bemidji State University in three sets on senior day Saturday afternoon in Harold Newman Arena.
The Jimmies get their record up to 17-9 overall and 10-8 in the Northern Sun. Jamestown currently sits all alone in eighth place with two matches to play. Either one more UJ win, or one more loss by Minnesota State University will send the Jimmies to the NSIC Tournament. Bemidji State's record is now at 16-10 and 8-10 in league play.
The Jimmies got off to hot starts in all three sets, beginning with five straight points to commence set number one. An ace by
Momoka Minamiya paired with kills from
Charlotte Lempka,
Caroline Puetz, and Adamson put the Jimmies in front 5-0.
A bit later, the Jimmies ran away with it off of six consecutive points. During this run, Lempka and Puetz teamed up for big blocks on the outside Beavers attack on back-to-back points.
Addison Ertz also logged two kills during this span. Bemidji State made a bit of a run late in the set to cut the deficit to 21-16, but it was not enough.
Kate Wiebesiek had a nifty kill for the 24
th point as she set it into the back corner, then
Kallyn Grove put one down for set point and Jamestown went ahead 1-0 in the match with a 25-17 set victory.
The UJ attack logged a .244 (16-6-41) attacking percentage in the first set, over three times better than the Beavers' .073 (9-6-41). Jamestown also got two service aces and three blocks.
The Jimmies continued to hold the reigns in the second set, beginning with a 10-3 lead paced by Adamson's four kills, including one nasty one slammed home into the Bemidji State corner. The Beavers rolled a bit after that, getting the set to 13-10, but not long after, four straight points got the Jimmies in front 18-11. Adamson had another kill in this span while Minamiya got her second service ace of the match.
BSU then responded with what was their strongest stretch of the day, an 8-1 run which tied the second set at 19-19, but UJ did not deter. Adamson got a kill right after, then Kyliegh Schopp joined in with two straight kills with the Jimmies suddenly back in control up 23-19. Grove finished the set with back-to-back kills and Jamestown took the second set by a score of 25-21.
Bemidji State kill number significantly increased in the second set as they attacked a much improved .178 (14-6-45), but Jamestown got better also with their .325 (17-4-40) percentage as the highest of the match.
Puetz had a nice start in the third set, getting a kill on the second point, and then another on the third point, this being a loud smash up the middle to beat out the Beavers block attempt. Adamson's service ace brought the Jimmies to a 10-4 advantage.
In a similar manner to the first set, Jamestown went on another big run mid-set, this time with six straight points to push ahead 17-6. Lempka added two more kills in this run with Grove and Ertz getting one kill each as well. Even play ensued the rest of the set with Jamestown winning by another 11-point margin, 25-14 a bit later with Ertz's kill finishing off BSU.
A .265 (14-5-34) team attacking percentage combined with an ace plus two blocks led the Jimmies to their largest set-win on their senior day. Bemidji State struggled in the final set with the same number of errors as kills (9-9-41).
Adamson put together a nice performance on her senior day with 12 kills, 14 digs, and three block assists. Also up there in the kills department was Ertz with nine and Lempka with eight on .538 (8-1-13) attacking.
Schopp contributed with five kills and four blocks while
Ava Bertsch commanded the setting with 22 assists.
Sophie Ketterling was an absolute monster on her senior day with 28 digs despite only the three-set match. Minamiya had a nice senior day as well as she recorded double-figures in digs for the second straight day with 10 as well as adding two assists and two aces.
Final statistics favored the Jimmies in every category. Attacking percentage in the match sat at .278 (47-15-115) for Jamestown and .087 (32-21-127) on the Bemidji State side. Aces (4-2), blocks (7-5), assists (43-31), and digs (62-47) were all controlled by UJ.
Following the match, Jamestown took the time to honor their five seniors in a postgame ceremony. The Jimmies senior class consists of
Gracie Adamson,
Addison Brooke,
Sophie Ketterling,
Corbyn Menz, and
Momoka Minamiya.
Two more matches remain for the Jimmies regular season schedule as they look to clinch a playoff berth next weekend. A road trip to Northwestern Minnesota is in order where they will first play the University of Minnesota Crookston on Friday, November 7 at 5 p.m.
