Marshall, Minn. – The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team will embark on a road trip this weekend where they will play No. 12 Southwest Minnesota State University on Friday, and the University of Sioux Falls Saturday.
The Jimmies will head into the weekend with a record of 13-4 and an NSIC mark of 6-3 which ties them with St. Cloud State for the sixth-place spot in the conference. In their last time out, Jamestown took on a daunting task against No. 2 Wayne State University, where they were defeated in straight sets by the Wildcats.
Adamson leads the Jimmies attack as she has done all year, posting 3.37 kills per set and 3.65 digs per set, ranking ninth and eighth in the NSIC, respectively. Charlotte Lempka is just behind Adamson with 2.33 kills per set as well as a team high .332 attacking percentage (140-43-292).
On the defensive side of the ball, the Jimmies have looked as good as any team in the conference, ranking third in opponent attacking percentage (.164), third in blocks per set (2.14), and second in digs per set (17.6). Sophomore Kyleigh Schopp paces the Jimmies in blocks with 1.08 per set, putting her fourth in the NSIC. Caroline Puetz is also inside the top 10 in the conference with her .92 average. Ketterling is 11th in Division-II volleyball and first in the NSIC with an average of 5.35 digs per set.
The Jimmies first opponent on the weekend will be Southwest Minnesota State with a 13-3 overall record and a 7-2 mark in the Northern Sun. The Mustangs enter this week ranked 12th in the AVCA D-II Top 25 poll and in a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings.
This past weekend, the Mustangs rolled through their two-game road trip against Minot State University and the University of Mary, winning both of those in three sets. In their most recent match against the Marauders, the Mustangs attacked a staggering .490 (57-10-96) which was their third-highest mark in a single match since 2000.
Natalie Pilney led SMSU offensively with 10 kills on just 15 swings for a .533 attacking percentage (10-2-15). Lindsay Kruse was highly efficient as well with nine kills and a .615 attacking percentage (9-1-13). Sydney Thein directed the offense with 24 assists while Mya Krystosek led the backline, contributing seven digs.
SMSU has owned one of the top volleyball programs in the NSIC since the dawn of the conference. It has been nearly 30 years since they have finished sub .500 in conference play with the Mustangs winning at least 20 matches in 19 of the past 20 seasons. Last season, Southwest Minnesota State was 21-7 with a 14-6 NSIC record. They finished sixth in the conference and were eliminated from the postseason after a NSIC quarterfinal defeat to eventual tournament champion, St. Cloud State University. SMSU was selected to finish fourth in the conference in the 2026 Coaches' Preseason Poll.
Leah Jones is Mustangs leader in kills with 3.04 per set while three Mustangs are attacking above .300 on the season, led by Lindsay Kruse with a .365 mark (104-23-222). Pilney has posted some of the best block numbers in the conference thus far with a 1.02 set average, ranking sixth. Ashlynn Schroeder leads the backline defense with an average of 4.22 digs per set.
Thein and Tatem Schmidt have split setting duties averaging 6.61 and 5.35 assists per set, respectively on a team that leads the country with 13.83 assists per set. Other impressive team numbers are 14.65 kills per set at second in the NSIC and 17.5 digs per set for third in the conference.
USF will head into this weekend with a record of 6-11 and 2-7 in the NSIC. The Cougars will match up against Northern State University on Friday before the Jimmies come to town the following day.
The Cougars started the conference season 0-7, though they did play against some of the toughest opponents in the NSIC and the country during that stretch. Most recently, Sioux Falls got into the NSIC win column after beating Minot State and UMary in straight sets on the road in a similar manner to SMSU.
In the three-set victory in Minot, Ella Walker powered the offense with 16 kills attacking .448 (16-3-29) with Haley Wolfe right with eight kills and five blocks. Hollie Peterson posted a double-double with 31 assists and 11 digs while Maci Lerseth finished with a team-best 21 digs. Sioux Falls posted a .228 attacking percentage (37-11-114) while holding the Beavers to only .038 (31-26-132).
The Cougars are having a bit of a down season after they went 20-10 in 2025 and a fifth-place finish in the conference with their 14-6 record. In the NSIC tournament, USF upset No. 4 seed Minnesota State University on the road but lost to Concordia St. Paul in the semifinal round. Sioux Falls was selected fifth in this year's NSIC Volleyball Preseason Coaches' Poll.
The Cougars are heavily reliant on their middle blockers Walker and Wolfe. Walker averages a team-best 2.6 kills per set and her attacking percentage of .380 (169-37-347) ranks third in the NSIC. Wolfe has posted an attacking percentage of .332 (137-30-322) in addition to her 2.11 kills per set.
Walker and Wolfe rank first and second in the conference with 1.18 and 1.17 blocks per set respectively while Sioux Falls is averaging 2.54 blocks per set, by far the most in the Northern Sun and 10th in the nation. Walker has two games this season where she has recorded double digit blocks, including a 10-block performance against one of the best attacking teams in the conference in SMSU. This match helped the junior earn NSIC Defensive Player of the Week two weeks ago.
Peterson ranks 10th in the conference with 6.92 assists per set while Maci Lerseth commands the backrow defense with an average of 4.2 digs per set, ranking seventh in the NSIC.
Jamestown and SMSU played each other in Harold Newman Arena for the first recorded time ever in UJ's first season in the NSIC back in the 2025 season. Against the then-No. 16 Mustangs, the Jimmies dropped set one 25-15, bounced back to take set two 26-24, though fell in the match dropping the next two sets 25-17 and 25-20.
In the fourth-set match, Addison Brooke led the team with both 13 kills and four blocks while Adamson pitched in with 11 kills. Bertsch contributed 14 assists and Ketterling registered 20 digs. The Mustangs attacked .241 (58-19-162) in the win while the Jimmies hit .113 (43-25-160).
One day before they played SMSU in 2025, the Jimmies matched up against Sioux Falls in Jamestown which resulted in a sweep by the Cougars. The first set was close at 25-22, but the next two not so much with those scores at 25-13 and 25-14.
Versus USF, Schopp led the Jimmies offense with seven kills and no errors to attack a solid .350 on the day (7-0-20). Bertsch notched 11 assists in the effort. The Jimmies had no answers for the Sioux Falls attack with the road team hitting .447 (53-11-94) which was the highest UJ allowed any team to hit in a match all season long.
Head coach Jon Hegerle has played Sioux Falls three other times, getting wins over the Cougars in 2011 and 2012, but falling in 2013. A win Saturday would be the first win over USF in 14 seasons.
After the matches down south, the Jimmies will return to Harold Newman to host Minnesota State and St. Cloud State the following weekend.
