Kenosha, Wis. – The University of Jamestown women's volleyball team took down two teams receiving votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Poll Saturday in their second day of the Hampton Inn Invitational, beating both (RV) Nova Southeastern University and (RV) Hillsdale College in four sets.
Jamestown will enter Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play with a record of 7-1, as they prepare for 20 league games in one of the top Division-II volleyball conferences.
Game 1: Jamestown 3, Nova Southeastern 1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 31-29)
Set one was a thriller between the two 5-1 squads. It was 5-5 early, but Nova Southeastern opened up a 9-5 advantage. However, the Jimmies got right back into the game with a 5-1 run to make it 10-9.
Charlotte Lempka had a kill plus a block assist in this span as the Jimmies were back in front.
Jamestown fell behind a bit more, but five straight points backed by an
Addison Brooke kill and a
Kate Wiebesiek service ace pushed the Jimmies ahead 17-15. A bit later
Sophie Ketterling had a service ace and a kill by
Kallyn Grove made the first set 21-17.
Jamestown always had an answer to the Sharks and
Caroline Puetz sealed the set at 25-22 with a kill of her own. Set attacking percentages were .250 (14-5-36) for UJ and .211 (13-5-38) for NSU.
The beginning of the second set was just as close as the first, with neither team able to get ahead by more than two points. However, with UJ trailing 11-10, the Sharks pushed ahead 17-10 to take control of the set.
The scored moved to 24-17, but Jamestown made a monster comeback attempt. Lempka had three kills and two block assists as the Jimmies cut it to 24-23. Unfortunately, though, the Sharks earned the final point with UJ just short and dropping the second set 25-23.
Jamestown out-attacked Nova Southeastern once again with a percentage of .233 (15-5-43) to the Sharks .209 (15-6-43).
UJ had their best set right after dropping the second. The Jimmies started ahead 3-0 with kills by
Addison Ertz, Lempka, and Adamson, and never trailed. A 4-0 run a bit later made the game 13-7.
A couple of kills by Grove highlighted another 4-0 Jamestown run as they pushed ahead 23-13. Much like the Jimmies did in the second set, Nova Southeastern made a valiant effort at a comeback while Jamestown was one point away from victory. The Sharks scored six straight points with UJ at set point and the set came to 24-21. However, Lempka was clutch and nailed down a kill as the Jimmies survived to make it 2-1 in the match.
Jamestown hit better than Nova Southeastern for the third-straight set, this time the Jimmies were at .295 (17-4-44) while the Sharks were at .167 (12-6-36).
The Jimmies fell behind 5-1 in the fourth set but then got it to 7-7 with four straight points, and later took their first lead, 10-9, with an Bertsch service ace. The rest of the set was an evenly matched contest, with both sides failing to put the other away.
With each team at 23 points, the teams exchanged points with each other all the way until the Jimmies were ahead 28-27 when Nova Southeastern went on a colossal 2-0 run and sent Jamestown to match point. Although,
Kyleigh Schopp and Puetz blocked a Shark attack to send the game to 29-29. With the set tied again, the Sharks gave the Jimmies a free point on a bad set, and finally, Puetz had a service ace and the Jimmies got the final set to end 31-29 to move to 6-1 on the season.
Three Jimmies topped double digits in kills with Adamson at 15, Lempka at 14, and Grove with 10. Both Lempka and Grove hit extremely efficiently at .462 (14-2-26) and .421 (10-2-19), respectively, while Adamson led UJ with five blocks. Ketterling had 24 digs, and both
Ava Bertsch and
Kate Wiebesiek had double-doubles with Bertsch logging 30 assists and 10 digs while Wiebesiek had 22 assists and 10 digs.
Offensive numbers were slightly better for the Jimmies, including kills (65-56), and hitting percentage (.242-.198). Service aces went 7-5 in favor of UJ, but Nova Southeastern had slightly more blocks (12-11) and a few more digs (79-72).
Game 2: Jamestown 3, Hillsdale 1 (25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 25-16)
The Jimmies got no time off as they took the court against the Chargers immediately after their 31-point set win against Nova Southeastern. Just like the Sharks, Hillsdale and Jamestown played some highly competitive sets.
In the first set, both sides struggled to get a run going, until UJ scored three straight backed by kills from Adamson and Grove to make the set 14-12 in favor of the Jimmies. Not long after though, Hillsdale got a 3-0 run going and took a 16-15 set lead.
In the closing points, Puetz had two clutch kills to make the set 23-20, though Hillsdale scored the next two. Adamson though had a kill to get it to set point, then Wiebesiek scored a service ace as the Jimmies won a tight one, 25-22.
Both teams hit exceptionally well in the first set with Hillsdale at .350 (18-4-40), and Jamestown registering a .341 (18-4-41) attacking percentage.
Jamestown put away the second set early on with four different players contributing kills as the Jimmies earned seven of the set's first eight points. The Chargers got going midway through the set though and trimmed it to 14-11 with a 7-2 run.
Even with the game a bit closer now, the Jimmies never let go of their lead, scoring five of the final six points of the set with Puetz getting a kill on the set's 25
th point to push UJ ahead 2-0 in the match with a 25-19 set victory.
The Jimmies significantly reduced the kill numbers and attacking percentage of the Chargers in the second set, with Hillsdale only registering 11 kills and a .206 (11-4-34) attacking percentage in set two. UJ hit a solid .282 (16-5-39) in the set.
The Chargers had command of the third set early on, but by no more than a few points. Jamestown trailed 17-14, but two kills by Adamson led UJ to a 5-1 run, and the Jimmies had a lead for the first time at 19-18.
Addison Ertz pitched in with a kill late to move the set to 23-23, but UJ then committed a service error at a bad time and lost the next point as well with the Chargers continuing the match after a 25-23 set three victory.
The Jimmies saved their best set for last, recording their highest margin of victory in a set on the day, and tied for the second highest in their four-match weekend. Interestingly, the start was not dominated too much by the Jimmies, as each team had 15 points through the first 30 scores.
However,
Mya Foslien led the UJ offense in what was a 10-1 run to end the game. Foslien had three kills in a span in which the Jimmies could not be stopped, and with a 25-16 set victory, Jamestown capped off a great day two, taking down two opponents who were not far outside the AVCA Top 25 rankings.
Adamson had a career-high 19 kills against the Chargers, also hit .381 (19-3-42), and contributed defensively with 17 digs. Lempka had nine kills, and across the four matches of the weekend, hit .493 (39-5-69).
Sophie Ketterling had 23 digs and five assists, and
Ava Bertsch had 27 assists while Wiebesiek finished with 20.
Jamestown hit .291 (64-18-158) for the match while the Chargers were decent as well at .212 (54-21-156). The Jimmies doubled up Hillsdale in aces (4-2) and blocks (8-4), while recording more assists (59-51) and digs (68-67) as well.
The 7-1 Jimmies will head home for their first game at Harold Newman Arena and their NSIC opener against Minnesota State University Moorhead on Friday, September 11, at 6 p.m. as the Jimmies host Alumni Weekend.
