St. Paul, Minn. – A season which consisted of the first ever Division-II playoff appearance, and the nearly double the wins from 2025 has come to an end for the University of Jamestown women's volleyball team after they almost reverse swept the preseason No. 1 team in the country – Concordia University St. Paul – on their home turf, but fell in five sets to the Bears Tuesday night at the Gangelhoff Center in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Volleyball Tournament quarterfinal round.
The seventh-seeded Jimmies end their season with a record of 19-10 overall. The Bears move to 23-6 and will head to Wayne, Neb. where the remainder of the tournament will be played this weekend.
CSP came out firing in the first set with serves giving the Jimmies trouble and attacking attempts finding open spaces on the court. A 4-0 run and a 6-0 run from the Bears pushed them ahead 13-3 in the first set. Right after this though,
Gracie Adamson was able to spark a 5-1 Jamestown run with two kills and a nasty service ace to make the deficit 14-8.
Despite this, the Jimmies ran into another rough stretch with the Bears running away with it at 22-10.
Charlotte Lempka and Adamson then pushed UJ to earn six of the next seven points with two kills each, but the deficit was just a bit too much for Jamestown. The Bears got a kill a bit later to end the first set 25-17.
CSP attacked triple what UJ did at .346 (13-4-26) to the Jimmies .115 (9-6-26). Four service aces and three blocks as well for the home team helped them get a healthy set win.
The second set began much better for Jamestown with their hitters getting off powerful kills and avoiding blocks. The Bears held around a three-point edge for the beginning of the first set, but down 10-7, Ertz and Adamson had kills in a 6-2 run, then
Sophie Ketterling got an ace to tie the second set 12-12.
However, CSP scored three straight times right after, prompting a UJ timeout. After several rallies with the two teams trading points, the Bears got four straight points to push ahead 23-19 which was all it took. Lempka had one of the best kills of the night for the Jimmies right after this, but two straight kills by Concordia sent the Jimmies to a 25-19 defeat in the second set.
The Bears were not quite as good attacking wise in the second set with the Jimmies holding them to .242 (13-5-33), but UJ did not find success hitting at .111 (10-6-36). CSP got its service ace total up to seven in the match at this point after adding three aces in set number two.
The third set was a nice start for UJ which included a successful challenge and a kill from
Addison Ertz which gave the Jimmies their first multi-point lead of the match at 5-3. There were several long rallies for a next stretch in a time in which UJ had a slim lead. Adamson put together four kills in a 12-12 third set.
CSP got their first lead multi-point lead of the set at 14-12, though a Lempka kill, an Ertz kill, and an
Ava Bertsch service ace gave the Jimmies the lead back at 15-14. CSP settled into a 21-20 set lead in the third set, but a service error and Ertz finding the right spot twice for kills pushed the Jimmies in front 23-21.
CSP made it 23-23, then the two teams traded blows with a Lempka kill making the contest 24-23, then
Caroline Puetz made it 25-24 with a kill of her own. After a Concordia timeout, the teams kept exchanging points as closing the set seemed impossible for either side. With the score 30-30 and Ertz serving, the Bears committed an attacking error, then on Ertz's next serve, two Concordia receivers got confused on it landed between them for the point and the incredible 32-30 set win for UJ in thrilling fashion.
Jamestown got their hitting in motion in the third set, attacking .268 (21-6-56) against the defending National Runners Up, also getting two service aces as well. CSP attacked very well themselves at .333 (20-2-54), but seven service errors in the set was a major factor in preventing the Bears from sweeping.
With big momentum on their side after the set three victory, the Jimmies forced an early timeout in the fourth set ahead 8-4. Bertsch connected with hitters three times for a trio of assists while Ertz had two kills in this span. Everything was going right for the Jimmies for a long stretch with aces, blocks, and kills all finding the CSP side of the floor. In a 7-2 run for the Jimmies, Adamson had a block assist, an ace, and three kills with Jamestown quieting the crowd up 16-6.
CSP made it a bit interesting with four straight points, but the Jimmies were not quite done yet. With the score at 17-11, eight straight for UJ ended their best set of the 2026 season. Lempka pieced together three big time kills, including for the set point with CSP having no answers for Jamestown as the visitors got a 25-11 set win.
Attacking just kept getting better with the Jimmies only committing one error to hit .452 (15-1-31) in the fourth set. UJ added three aces and five blocks as well, also holding CSP to an attacking percentage of 0 (7-7-32) on their home court.
Unfortunately, though, this did not quite last into the fifth set. Concordia got out ahead to a 6-2 advantage and never looked back. There were a couple of occasions in which the Jimmies cut it to three at 7-4, and 9-6, but they could not get over that hump.
Ertz finished her incredible night with three more kills in the fifth set and Lempka ended her night with two more kills, but six of the final eight points belonged to the home team as Concordia finished off the Jimmies 15-8 in the final set.
In the fifth set, the Bears got their offense back on track to attack .350 (8-1-20) and sent the Jimmies into the negatives at -.080 (5-7-25).
Adamson's career finishes with her 14
th double-double of the season after she led the Jimmies with 18 kills and added 11 digs. Ertz's career night could not have come at a better time, setting a new career-high with 17 kills while attacking .267 (17-5-45). Lempka had an electric evening too, tying a career-high with 15 kills and hitting .407 (15-4-27).
Bertsch tied a career-best with 31 set assists while also posting 12 digs and two aces. Ketterling's one-of-a-kind season ends with 28 digs, nine assists, and two aces.
Momoka Minamiya posted eight digs and added a service ace in her final match on the backline for UJ.
For the nearly evenly played match, the Jimmies attacked .195 (60-26-174) while the Bears were at .253 (61-19-166). Nearly ever facet of the game was just about identical with CSP logging one more block (7-6) and one more kill (61-60) while UJ had one more assist (58-57) and one more dig (76-75).
This concludes the 2026 season for Jamestown women's volleyball. Be sure to continue to visit jimmiepride.com or click the link
here for any more postseason honors, the upcoming season recap, or other press releases relating to Jamestown women's volleyball.
