Crookston, Minn. – The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team had their best attacking performance of the season and clinched an NSIC playoff berth after they beat the University of Minnesota Crookston in straight sets Friday evening at Lysaker Gymnasium.
The Jimmies move to 11-8 in the NSIC with an overall season record of 18-9. With the win, the Jimmies have secured a berth into the conference playoffs which begin next Tuesday, November 10. The loss for the Golden Eagles makes their record 3-24 and 1-18 with one more game left.
It was all Jimmies from the very start of the first set. With
Sophie Ketterling serving, Puetz had back-to-back kills on the right side, then Ketterling found the edge of court for a service ace. Puetz added another kill and then a block a bit later as UJ pulled ahead 9-1 after an 8-0 run.
Another 6-0 run mid-set, paced by two kills from
Charlotte Lempka made the contest 19-6 in favor of Jamestown. Five of the final six points of the set belonged to UJ as well. For the 25
th point, an errant serve reception went over the net and
Kyleigh Schopp slammed it down for the unassisted kill to give the Jimmies a 25-11 first set victory.
The Jimmies tripled up Crookston in kills and attacked .359 (18-4-39) while holding the home team to .088 (6-3-34).
UMC had a nice response to begin the second set, starting ahead 4-1. However, Jamestown got back-to-back kills from Adamson to spark a 7-2 spurt as they pulled ahead 8-6.
Once it was tied at 9-9, the Jimmies put together a monster 10-2 run in which Adamson added to her already impressive set with two more kills and two blocks. Late in the set,
Corbyn Menz got some front row action and joined with Lempka for a nice block on a right-side attack by the Golden Eagles. A service error and an attack error by UMC gave the Jimmies their final points in a 25-17 set win in set number two.
Attacking was .481 (15-2-27) in the second set for UJ while they added four blocks as well. Crookston was a bit better hitting wise at .139 (11-6-36).
Adamson sent down two more kills early in the third set for another great start by the Jimmies as they went up 7-1. A while later, the UJ scored seven of the next nine points to run away with it, 20-7. During this run, Puetz and
Addison Ertz each posted two kills and
Ava Bertsch and
Momoka Minamiya got one ace apiece.
To cap off the playoff-clinching win, Menz had a kill and
Addison Brooke posted a kill as well as part of the final five points for the Jimmies. Ertz added her third kill of the set for the 25
th point to send the Jimmies to a 3-0 win in Crookston.
Two service aces plus another brilliant attacking set of .448 (15-2-29) keyed the Orange and Black to victory in the third set. The Golden Eagles hit .138 (8-4-29) in their final set.
The trio of Adamson, Puetz and Lempka led the Jamestown offense with all three of these Jimmies putting together some of their best matches of the season. Adamson led the pack with 12 kills on .435 (12-2-23) attacking. Puetz had her best attacking performance of the year at .556 (11-1-18) with 11 kills being the most she had in an NSIC match. Lempka posted eight kills on just 10 swings (8-1-10) to hit a blistering .700.
Ava Bertsch orchestrated the offense with 28 assists. Defensively, Ketterling and Minamiya were everywhere it seemed with 16 and 15 digs, respectively.
A .421 (48-8-95) attacking percentage was the highest of the season for the Jimmies while UMC notched a .121 (25-13-99) mark. Aces (4-1), blocks (6-3), assists (45-21), and digs (52-35) were also won by Jamestown.
The Jimmies will conclude the regular season with Minnesota State University Moorhead tomorrow, November 7 at 1 p.m.
