University of Jamestown

Rapid City, S.D. - The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team began their 2026 season with two wins at the Hardrocker Volleyball Tournament. The Jimmies took down the Lake Superior State Lakers in four sets, then swept the Chadron State Eagles on the campus of South Dakota Mines Friday.
 
Game 1: Jamestown 3, Lake Superior State 1 (25-10, 25-12, 23-25, 25-15)
 
The Jimmies wasted no time in the first set showing off their offensive prowess. UJ got ahead 9-4, and then Addison Brooke rattled off three straight kills to push Jamestown way out in front 12-4.
 
The Jimmies rolled through the rest of the way, only allowing the Lakers to score consecutive points on one occasion in the first set. A kill by Gracie Adamson and another by Brooke finalized set one by a score of 25-10. UJ hit .419 (15-2-31) as a team en route to their convincing win.
 
Jamestown was just as impressive in set number two. Similar to set one, the Jimmies made an early statement to build a 9-5 advantage. Then, UJ took the next six points which included two kills each from Kyleigh Schopp and Kallyn Grove to make the second set 15-5.
 
Lake Superior State went on a small run after this to get the game to 18-12, but Jamestown responded with their longest scoring run of the match: seven straight with Momoka Minamiya serving which included two aces from the senior defensive specialist.
 
The Jimmies took set number two 25-12, and hit even better than they did in the first set, this time .429 (14-2-28) while the Lakers struggled with an attacking percentage of 0 (8-8-31).
 
Looking to sweep in their first match of the season, UJ could not carry their success from the first two sets into the third. Several early attacking errors gave Lake Superior State a big cushion of a 13-4 advantage.
 
However, the Lakers went on an attack-error spree after this, which allowed UJ to mount a comeback, tie the game at 16, and then notch four of the next five points with three kills by Brooke to make it 20-17.
 
The Jimmies held onto the lead at 22-20, but then Lake Superior State had a couple of kills and two services aces to score four straight points in the clutch, and later win by the narrowest of margins at 25-23. The Jimmies committed six attack errors in the third set and hit just .135 (11-6-37) while the Lakers had their best set hitting wise at .189 (15-8-37).
 
Jamestown was back on a roll in set four looking to seal the deal and get their season-opening win. Grove had four kills early and was a key factor in helping the Jimmies get out in front 12-4. The Lakers made it a game again and got as close as 14-11, but then Adamson had three kills as Jamestown took nine of the next 10 points, pushing their lead up to 23-12.
 
Another kill from Brooke and an attacking error on the Lake Superior State side gave the Jimmies their 24^th and 25^th points as the match wrapped up with a season-opening win for UJ. Jamestown had another great performance attacking wise, hitting .355 (14-3-31) in the final set.
 
The Jimmies had a balanced attack throughout the match with Grove and Brooke each tallying nine kills, Adamson with eight, and Addison Ertz with seven. Adamson also had nine digs while Grove was especially efficient with nine kills on only 11 attempts with no errors (.818 attacking percentage).
 
Caroline Puetz and Charlotte Lempka led the net-front presence defensively with four and three blocks, respectively. Sophie Ketterling led the Jimmies with 16 digs and Kate Wiebesiek notched 23 assists and eight digs. Minamiya had six digs and a team-best three service aces.
 
The Jimmies hit .323 on the match (54-13-127), a mark that they beat only one time in the 2025 season. Jamestown beat the Lakers in just about every aspect of the game, including kills (54-41), aces (10-2), and digs (61-52).
 
Game 2: Jamestown 3, Chadron State 0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-21)
 
The Eagles controlled the opening part of the first set, getting out ahead 10-6 with the Jimmies hurting themselves with attack errors. However, the Jimmies got just what they needed after this with five straight points highlighted by two kills each by Ertz and Lempka as UJ had their first lead at 11-10.
 
The set stayed close for a few points, but the Jimmies got better and better as the set went along, slowly growing their lead up to 22-16. A few points later, a Chadron State service error gave UJ the set point as the Jimmies went up 1-0 in the match. Jamestown had 17 kills in the set compared to only nine by the Eagles.
 
UJ was lights out in the second set, with Puetz and Adamson earning two kills early on to open up a 5-0 lead right out of the gates. The advantage only swelled from that point forward and later on, Mya Foslien led an 8-1 run with two kills of her own to put the Jimmies up 18-7.
 
After this, Adamson had three more kills to get herself up to seven in the set as the Jimmies ran away with set number two, 25-12. Jamestown hit .327 (21-5-49) while holding the Eagles to .023 (5-4-43).
 
The final set was also the closest one with Chadron State getting ahead 5-1 to open things up. It took UJ a bit of time, but four straight points a bit later gave the Jimmies their first lead at 11-9.
 
Jamestown maintained their lead, but the gritty Eagles kept it within a few points, preventing the Jimmies from going on any significant scoring runs. Chadron State went on a 4-0 run a bit later to knot the game at 20, but Kyleigh Schoop had back-to-back aces as part of four straight points by Jamestown, as the Orange and Black took a 24-20 lead.
 
The Eagles got the next point, but Jamestown earned the sweep with a Chadron State attack error as the final set concluded 25-21.
 
Adamson capped off a great day with a 13-kill performance against the Eagles with nine digs to go along with that. Puetz added 11 kills and three blocks. Ketterling had a huge defensive performance with 29 digs while Minamiya had 13. Both Grove and Schoop had four blocks a piece. Bertsch tallied 22 assists and seven digs while Wiebesiek had 17 assists.
 
Jamestown's hitting was highly efficient again, with the Jimmies notching an attack percentage of .262 (49-16-126) while holding Chadron State to just .088 (28-17-125). The Jimmies also won the assists battle (47-26) and digs (77-51).
 
The Jimmies will have day two of the Hardrocker Volleyball Tournament tomorrow, where they will face the University of Minnesota Crookston in the morning, and cap off the weekend against the tournament hosts South Dakota Mines in the nightcap.