Blue Jays blitz Williston
Not being able to get the ball past the Blue Jays’ front row spelled out a long evening for the Williston Coyotes in Jamestown on Thursday night. But no more so for the Coyotes than in the second game of what turned into Jamestown’s sixth consecutive 3-0 sweep over a West Region opponent.By: By Michael Savaloja, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
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Not being able to get the ball past the Blue Jays’ front row spelled out a long evening for the Williston Coyotes in Jamestown on Thursday night.
But no more so for the Coyotes than in the second game of what turned into Jamestown’s sixth consecutive 3-0 sweep over a West Region opponent.
Trailing the Jays 21-10 in the second, Williston was unable to return the ball back to Jamestown’s side of the court. The Jays’ 6-foot junior middle hitter Addie Eamon slammed back three Williston attack attempts for kills, while 5-6 sophomore right-side hitter Jenna Stilwell also pounded a shot back into the face of the Coyotes, as Jamestown closed out the frame on a 10-0 run to take the set 25-10.
It was a dominant performance all around for Jamestown, which improved to 16-5 overall and 8-2 in the West Region with a convincing 25-17, 25-10, 25-17 victory.
“The front row I thought did a nice job. But again, it starts with serving,” JHS coach Sara Hegerle said. “When we’re serving tough then they can’t control that many balls and we’ve got a big front row a lot of the times.
“Both aspects of our game were pretty good tonight,” Hegerle added. “Front and back, and it was really fun to see them pull it together like that.”
Eamon and Stilwell tied for a match-high nine kills apiece, while seniors Siri Jystad and Billie “Wild Bill” Buchanan each posted eight kills in the one-sided affair. The solid serving the coach alluded to was reflected in the stat sheet, with junior setter Josie Hegerle (4 aces), Jystad (2), senior setter Rebekah Horgan (1) and sophomore defensive specialist Julina Niemeier (1) leading the team at the line.
“(Jamestown) has a huge front row,” Williston coach Josh Wastvedt said. “Our serve receive really gave them a lot of free balls. We cleaned that up a little bit, but that needs to be a lot better if we’re going to be successful at the end of the year.”
Josie Hegerle produced a kill, one of her match-high 17 assists and back-to-back ace serves during a 6-1 Jamestown run in the third and final game, which turned a 7-7 tie into a 13-8 Blue Jay advantage.
Jamestown never looked back, as Jystad helped the Jays close out the final game with a trio of kills down the stretch. The 5-9 middle hitter then ended the match 25-17 with one of her two ace serves.
It was Jamestown’s second straight sweep over the Coyotes. Jamestown derailed the Coyotes in Williston 25-15, 25-11, 25-19 on Sept. 21.
“Our team was ready to play Williston,” coach Hegerle said. “We were fired up, the crowd was fired up. It was almost like a section final game or something.”
The match started with the Jays and the Coyotes playing to a 10-10 tie in game No. 1, but just like the final two games a big Jamestown run thwarted any and all momentum Williston could muster.
Buchanan bombed home a monster kill from the left side, assisted by Josie Hegerle, to give the Jays an 11-10 lead. That kicked off an 8-1 JHS run, as Eamon and Stilwell added kills and Hegerle sent home an ace to produce an 18-11 Jamestown advantage.
Buchanan later sent another massive kill over the net as the Jays led 23-15, which really put the exclamation point on the 25-17 JHS victory.
“It comes from ball control. We serve tough and we pass well, and as you can see tonight we have a lot of people who can put the ball on the floor,” Sara Hegerle said. “Tonight I think we had five or six kids that hit the ball so hard that I thought the paint was going to come off the floor. When you see that many kids doing that, you know we’re doing the right things.”
Before rolling to a 10-0 run to close the second at 25-10, Jamestown first used a 5-0 spark early to turn a slim 7-6 advantage to 12-6. Horgan tossed up four of her eight assists during the run, as she found Jystad, Buchanan and Hegerle twice for kills.
Williston was led by Shelby Njos with eight kills and Shelby Pederson’s 10 assists.
“We’re a very inexperienced team, and tonight we wanted to compete,” Wastvedt said. “I think we competed well, we just didn’t have the intensity to go along with that.”
Jamestown travels to play in the 24-team Fargo Invitational, starting today at 4:30 p.m. against Wahpeton at Fargo Davies High School. Jamestown will also play Grand Forks Red River and LaMoure tonight.
“Our goal is to go there and win the tournament, and I think it’s within our reach to do that,” Hegerle said. “We’re excited to play Red River. They’re the defending state champs and we match up pretty well against them.
“It’s nice to hear people are a little nervous to play us. It’s a good change.”
Jamestown 3, Williston 0
Williston 17 10 17
Jamestown 25 25 25
Williston — Kills, Shelby Njos 8, Emily Lysne 5, Katie Nice 4. Assists, Shelby Pederson 10, Kyleigh Cotton 6. Aces, Hannah Kitzan 1, Cayli Slette 1. Blocks, Sam Monteau 2, Keyanna Enget 1, Nice 1. Digs, Slette 18, Njos 12, Kitzan 12.
Jamestown — Kills, Jenna Stilwell 9, Addie Eamon 9, Billie Buchanan 8, Siri Jystad 8. Assists, Josie Hegerle 17, Rebekah Horgan 8. Aces, Hegerle 4, Jystad 2, Horgan 1, Julina Niemeier 1. Blocks, Eamon 4, Stilwell 1. Digs, McKayla Orr 13, McKayla Keller 11, Hegerle 10.
Records: Jamestown 16-5, 9-2 West Region; Williston 10-13, 2-8 West Region.
Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at msavaloja@jamestownsun.com
Tags: sports, jays, volleyball
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