JAMESTOWN – The University of Jamestown lost the first set but came back with a dominant second set on their way to a four-set win (22-25, 25-10, 25-14, 25-18) over Ottawa University in the GPAC Semifinals on Wednesday, March 29, at Harold Newman Arena.
Throughout the match, the Jimmies’ Caylor Cox was wearing mismatched socks and sneakers.
“The socks is just something I like,” Caylor Cox said. “It’s my style, you don’t see many people doing it, I like to stand out. The shoes, I ripped one of my shoes earlier this year and I really like the one so I wanted to wear the other one still, I just haven’t bought a new pair. I like the Asics but the Asics tore on my left foot so I’m wearing an Addidas shoe on my left foot.”
The combination of mismatched socks and shoes did little to slow down Cox who finished the day with 17 kills and two aces. Despite being a senior Cox also announced that the GPAC Championship game on Saturday, April 1, will not be his last game at Newman Arena, because he will be coming back for his extra season of eligibility.
The first set was full of big runs as the Braves (9-12) took their first lead at 5-4 and forced a Jimmies timeout with the lead at 9-6. The timeout did not stop the Braves who pushed the lead out to 11-7 but a Braves error cut the deficit to 11-8, kickstarting a 4-0 run to tie the first set up at 11. The Braves responded with a run to take a 21-17 lead before the Jimmies were able to cut it to 23-22. The Braves kept it going though and won the first set 25-22.
ADVERTISEMENT
The second set was all Jimmies (20-3) as they sprinted out to a big 9-3 lead and were able to stretch it all the way out to 21-9 and kept it going to get the 25-10 second set win. The Braves did not have back-to-back points at any point in the second set.
The beginning of the third set was much tighter with the Jimmies taking an early 8-6 lead, which started a run that saw them take an 11-6 lead. The Braves responded with a run to cut the deficit to 12-8, but the Jimmies responded with a run to take a 21-11 lead. The Jimmies put the set away on an Oguzhan Oguz kill to get the 25-14 third set.
“We seem to be a slow starting team so it was just staying consistent,” Jimmies head coach Travers Cox said. “We didn’t have as many errors and our block was much better too.”
The Jimmies sprinted out to an early 7-2 lead in the fourth set before the Braves cut it to 15-12. The Jimmies responded with back-to-back kills to push the lead out to 17-12. The Jimmies appeared well on their way to the fourth set win sitting at 22-15 but the Braves would not go down with a fight as they cut the deficit to 23-17. The Jimmies put the match away on a kill from Downey Huynh to get the 25-18 fourth-set win.
The match was considerably different from the last time the two teams played on March 15, when the Jimmies had to fight back from a two sets to none deficit to get a five-set win.
“When we played them here, I think we took them for granted,” Travers Cox said. “When they came here, we were like, ‘ah we just beat you in three at home’, and we got smacked in the face. It was a wake-up call and we had to make a few adjustments. I made a few adjustments to our lineup to get better matchups to try to give them a different look.”
The win means the Jimmies are now 5-0 all-time in the GPAC tournament. The Jimmies’ Derek Correa had 50 assists in the win, good for third most in a match in program history, only trailing two previous performances of his.
The Jimmies return to the floor at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 1, when they take on Dordt University.
ADVERTISEMENT
OU 1, UJ 3
OU: 25 10 14 18–1
UJ: 22 25 25 25–3
Kills leaders:
OU: Michal Bak 13, Akeil Williams 12, Macort Pickup 5
UJ: Caylor Cox 17, Oguzhan Oguz 17, Downey Huynh 12, Ever Cancel 9
Assists leaders:
OU: Andrew Salinas 16, Jimmy Flores 15, Kevin Davidson 2
ADVERTISEMENT
UJ: Derek Correa 50, Adam Lopata 3, Downey Huynh 1
Aces leaders:
UJ: Correa 3, Cox 2, Oguz 1
The Trust Project
