Jamestown, N.D. – The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team had an uncharacteristic start, but got back into the swing of things late in the match as they took down the Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons in four sets Friday night at Harold Newman Arena.
The Jimmies get to 8-1 on the season while the Dragons move to 7-3.
Set one was close, but not the most high-quality one will ever see. No team had a huge lead and each side committed several attacking errors.
Gracie Adamson had a kill to move the game to 11-10, but then Moorhead rattled off seven of the next eight points to get ahead 18-12.
The poor attacking for the Jimmies continued late into the first set. Only three more points were scored by UJ, all of them off of Dragon errors. Moorhead took set one by a score of 25-15, attacking .212 (12-5-33) while the Jimmies needed some answers after they hit -.119 (6-11-42).
Jamestown did not look good to begin set number two either. The Dragons earned the first six points of the set and 10 of the first 11. A bit later, two kills by
Kallyn Grove and one from
Caroline Puetz put the set at 11-6, but Moorhead got up 18-9 not long after.
The Jimmies though, completely turned around the set and the match after this. Adamson notched three kills as part of a 4-0 run, and
Kyleigh Schopp finished a 7-1 run as UJ only trailed 20-18. Moorhead earned the next point, but then the Jimmies got four straight with an Adamson service ace giving Jamestown their first lead of the set at 22-21.
The Dragons battled to get the set tied at 23, but then
Kate Wiebesiek connected with
Mya Foslien for the 24
th point. Then, Puetz and Lempka blocked an attack attempt by Moorhead as the home opening crowd roared with the Jimmies mounting a huge comeback to take set number two 25-23. The Dragons out-attacked UJ once again at .114 (12-7-44) to Jamestown's .083 (13-9-48).
Just like the first set, the third was a tight contest back-and-forth until both teams scored 11 points. After this, the Jimmies got five of the next points thanks in large part due to two Adamson kills as they pushed ahead 16-12.
Another 5-0 run gave UJ complete control with a kill by Grove making the contest 21-13. Late in the set, Foslien had a kill and
Momoka Minamiya got a service ace as Jamestown went up 2-1 in the match with a 25-15 set victory. Attacking in set three looked much more like what the Jimmies had been doing all season with the team at .375 (15-3-32) and holding Moorhead to their worst mark of the match at .091 (10-7-33).
The Dragons got out to a 9-5 advantage in the final set, but UJ battled back to tie the set 11-11 with four straight points back by a Grove kill and an ace by
Ava Bertsch. Moorhead, however, took the lead right back, and it was not until another 4-0 spurt put the Jimmies back out in front 18-16.
Several Dragon attacking errors helped UJ quite a bit in the closing points of the set with Jamestown going up 22-17, then Lempka getting two kills to push the Jimmies up 24-18. Moorhead made it interesting with four straight points after this, but Foslien sealed the match with her eighth kill as the match-winner and the Jimmies beginning NSIC play with a four-set win at home.
Adamson did Adamson things with another double-double off 16 kills and 20 digs. Lempka had nine digs and attacked .313 (9-4-16) while Foslien had eight. Schopp had a big day at the net with eight blocks and four kills. Back-to-back NSIC Defensive Player of the Week,
Sophie Ketterling had a team-best 24 digs and also posted four assists. Bertsch had 18 assists and four digs while Wiebesiek got herself 17 assists and nine digs.
For the match, UJ attacked .105 (47-29-171) which was their worst mark of the season. Moorhead was not much better at just .127 (48-28-157). The Jimmies made up for the attacking with a season-best 11 blocks. In addition to kills and attacking percentage, the Dragons also beat Jamestown in blocks (14-11), assists (46-43), and digs (82-73).
Jamestown will look keep things rolling tomorrow, September 13 as they wrap up the first weekend of NSIC volleyball against the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles back at Harold Newman at 2 p.m.
