Jimmies sweep Trojans at home

One of the smallest venues in all of college sports seems to grow on the players it houses, and saying goodbye is never easy.

Jamestown College senior volleyball players Katie Zent, Beth Segerholm, Emilee Schutta, Katie Lee and Kaitlyn Rogalla said goodbye to the Hansen Center on Friday night, but their final home match with the Jimmies against the Dakota State University Trojans is one they can look back on and be proud of.

Jamestown College romped the Trojans 25-11, 25-12 in the opening two games, and went on to sweep for the final time at home this season by capturing the third game 26-24.

“Our whole team has just all came together and is supportive of everybody. It’s a lot of fun,” said Lee, a libero for the Jimmies. “I’m going to miss these guys so much. They’re like my family.”

Lee, along with Zent, each received game balls prior to the match in recognition of personal achievements they’ve reached this year. Lee, from Fargo, surpassed 1,000 career digs this season and after posting 10 on Friday against the Trojans, she now stands with 1,195 career digs as a Jimmie.

Zent surpassed 1,000 kills, and nine more on Thursday brought her career total to 1,065.

“I don’t think there’s a Jimmie volleyball player that doesn’t like the Hansen,” said Zent, a native of Lefor, N.D. “It’s sad, but the end of the season is coming up too and everybody loves tournament time. So it’s a little bit bittersweet.”

A 6-0 run by the Jimmies early in Game 1 set the tone for what would become a dominant opening two games for Jamestown College. Junior Sarah Becker slammed home a pair of her 10 kills in the match during the run, while Zent collected one of her two aces, helping the Jimmies move out front 9-3.

The Trojans were playing their second match of the night at the Hansen Center, as they fell to Valley City State University 3-0 prior to playing the Jimmies. Some fatigue may have been a factor, as three consecutive hitting errors contributed to Jamestown’s 6-0 run before the Jimmies ran away with the frame 25-11.

It was more of the same for the Jimmies in the second game, as everything — serving, passing and hitting — was working for Jamestown. Back-to-back kills by Zent and back-to-back aces by Lee helped the Jimmies carve out an early 7-2 lead before they blew it wide open to win by 13.

Jamestown College was playing its second match in as many days. The Jimmies (23-6) defeated South Dakota Mines 3-0 on Thursday at the Hansen Center.

“The first two sets yesterday we had a lot of mistakes and unforced errors serving and offensively, and I thought we were a lot more efficient tonight from both the service line and at the net,” Jimmie coach Jon Hegerle said. “We put a lot of pressure on Dakota State those first two sets and never gave them much breathing room.”

The Trojans hung tough all throughout the third game, as they took their first lead of the match at 1-0 to start it. Rogalla and Becker came up huge for the Jimmies down the stretch.

Rogalla posted four of her 10 kills as the Jimmies led 19-17, and after being tied at 21-21, Becker notched another pair of kills to help the Jimmies to the sweep.

Rogalla got in on a block on the final play of the match, as Jamestown won 26-24.

“When you win 25-11, 25-12, regardless of how it goes, you just lose some intensity and some focus,” Hegerle said. “The second thing is Dakota State was all of a sudden passing better and serving better and putting some more pressure on us. So it was a combination of those two things.”

Jamestown College hits the road for its final two regular season matches of the season. The Jimmies will be at Black Hills State next Friday, and they’ll face South Dakota Mines in Rapid City next Saturday.

Jamestown College 3, Dakota State 0

Dakota State 11 12 24

Jamestown College 25 25 26

Jamestown College statistics

Kelsey Dergagisch: 1 kill, 22 assists, 11 digs.

Alaina Brown: 5 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 6 digs, 2 blocks.

Kaitlyn Rogalla: 10 kills, 3 digs, 1 block.

Janna Johnson: 5 kills, 3 digs, 1 block.

Katie Zent: 9 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs, 2 blocks.

Emilee Schutta: 3 kills, 2 digs.

Katie Lee: 2 assists, 4 aces, 10 digs.

Beth Segerholm: 4 digs.

Kaia Buck: 2 kills, 16 assists, 2 aces, 8 digs.

Alex Hanson: 2 kills, 1 dig, 1 block.

Sarah Becker: 10 kills, 4 blocks.

Kaitlyn Bollingberg: 1 dig.

Records: Jamestown College 23-6; Dakota State University 12-19.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at msavaloja@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jimmies, volleyball