Rapid City, S.D. – Five teams, four opponents, but no problems for the University of Jamestown women's volleyball team as they took down all four participants of the Hardrocker Volleyball Tournament, beating both the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles and the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers Saturday.
Game 1: Jamestown 3, Minnesota Crookston 0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-13)
The Jimmies established themselves early in the first set, with
Charlotte Lempka and
Caroline Puetz getting two kills to assist the Jamestown in getting a 11-5 advantage.
Gracie Adamson joined in on the fun halfway through the first set with three kills as part of a 4-0 run by UJ with the Jimmies doubling up Crookston 16-8.
A couple of errors by Jamestown late in the set gave the Golden Eagles some life with Crookston trailing just 21-16, but
Mya Foslien slammed it home for the 24
th and 25
th points of the first set with the Jimmies winning 25-17. Much like the day before, the Jimmies looked great hitting wise with 18 kills and a .311 (18-4-45) attacking percentage in set one.
Crookston kept the second set within a few points early on, but Jamestown went on a 9-1 run through the mid-section of the set, including two kills by Puetz and a service ace by
Momoka Minamiya which made the score 19-9.
The Golden Eagles got back on track a bit later into the set, but the Jimmies earned the final three points off a kill from
Kallyn Grove, an error on Crookston, and a service ace by Adamson to push UJ to a 25-14 win and ahead 2-0 in the match.
UJ slowly used small spurts to push themselves into the driver's seat during the final set. Seven different players had kills early on as Jamestown pushed ahead 14-7. Crookston scored the next point but then a 5-0 run by the Jimmies ensued, leading to a 19-8 advantage.
The Golden Eagles had a nice stretch, but Jamestown's dominate performance was finalized with the last five points of the match and the final set ending in a score of 25-13.
Puetz led the Jimmies with 11 kills, hitting .333 (11-3-24) while also recording three blocks and three digs. Grove hit .400 (7-1-15) and was right behind Puetz with seven kills. Adamson had four kills and eight digs while
Sophie Ketterling led the pack with 18 digs. Minamiya had seven digs and three service aces.
Ava Bertsch registered 18 assists and
Kate Wiebesiek was right behind her with 15.
Jamestown hit .205 (40-16-117) in the contest while Crookston was at .086 (19-11-93). UJ more than doubled the kills the Golden Eagles had, also recording more service aces (8-2) and digs (49-25).
Game 2: Jamestown 3, South Dakota Mines 1 (25-20, 25-23, 16-25, 25-14)
In the battle of the two best teams in the tournament, the first set was just as expected: see-saw action with neither team able to get more than a couple of points at a time. South Dakota Mines was down 7-6 but rattled off four straight points in what was the first time all match a team scored more than two consecutive points.
However, Jamestown got back into it with six of the next eight points, including two kills by Lempka with the Jimmies retaking the lead 13-12. A bit later with the score knotted at 15, UJ put the first set away with six straight points backed by two kills from Grove and a kill plus an ace by Adamson.
Foslien sealed the deal with the 25
th point with the Jimmies taking the first set 25-20. Both teams hit very well in the first set, but Jamestown had an edge with a .341 (18-3-44) attacking percentage.
The second set was close again to begin with, but Bertsch was serving when UJ went on a 5-0 run with the setter logging two aces to push the Jimmies ahead 11-8. The Hardrockers tied it up and the tight game continued, but back-to-back kills from Ertz and Lempka pushed UJ ahead 20-17.
South Dakota Mines then scored four straight points to take a lead and force a Jamestown timeout, to which the Jimmies rattled off three straight points to get the game to 23-21. In a high-quality finish, the teams exchanged points off of each other's errors, and an attack error on the Hardrockers side gave UJ the 25-23 set win.
The Jimmies hit worse, had more errors, and fewer blocks in the second set, but did have four service aces which proved crucial in the two-point win.
Set number three was not pretty for the visitors with the Hardrockers hitting .481 (14-1-27) and much better towards the beginning of the set. South Dakota Mines opened up a 9-1 lead, and while the Jimmies kept it even the rest of the way, the hole was too much to dig out of.
A kill by
Kyleigh Schopp made the contest 19-13, but not once in the set did UJ score more than two straight points as the Hardrockers took set three by a score of 25-16.
The fourth and final set capped off an amazing weekend for Jamestown. The Jimmies never trailed and really got themselves in the driver's seat with an Adamson kill finishing a 4-0 run that made the set 12-6 in favor of UJ.
Slowly, the lead continued to swell after this, with a kill by Schopp giving the Jimmies a 21-12 advantage as the Hardrockers struggled to find answers. Adamson finished the match with a kill as part of another 4-0 run from Jamestown and the Jimmies downed the tournament hosts 25-14 in the final set.
The Jimmies hit .333 (11-2-27) in the final stanza while holding South Dakota Mines to by far their worst mark of the match with an even 0 (9-9-36).
Puetz and Adamson led the balanced attack with 11 kills apiece. Puetz hit .375 (11-2-24) while Adamson had 19 digs. Ketterling also logged 19 digs, while Lempka went for nine kills and two blocks. Bertsch led the setting duties with 23 assists and eight digs while Wiebesiek had 20 assists and seven digs.
The match was evenly played with UJ barely edging the Hardrockers in attacking percentage with .232 (55-20-151) to South Dakota Mines .217 (50-17-152). Blocks were in favor of the home team (7-3), but the Jimmies had one more ace (6-5), and a handful more digs (70-64).
The Jimmies will look to stay hot back in the central time zone next weekend for another five-team event, this being the Hampton Inn Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin – Parkside. The Jimmies will play Purdue University Northwest and UW Parkside on Friday, and then Hillsdale College and Nova Southeastern University on Saturday.
