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SIOUX CITY, Iowa — When a team hangs around long enough, sooner or later it’s bound to cash in. The University of Jamestown is hoping to cash that ticket on Tuesday, Dec. 6, but before that, they had to book their spot in the final four and they did just that sweeping Columbia College (25-10, 25-18, 25-17) on Saturday, Dec. 3, at the Tyson Events Center.
For the first time since Oct. 26, the Jimmies (35-2) won the first set by double digits as they won the first set against the Cougars 25-10. After the Cougars scored the first point of the match to take a 1-0 lead, the Jimmies responded with a quick 3-0 run to take a 3-1 lead and the Cougars never got back into the set. Later in the set, after a 3-0 Jimmies run made it 15-7, the Cougars called a timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Jimmies went on a 10-3 run to win the set 25-10.
“Our team was pretty fired up coming out of the locker room,” Jimmies head coach Jon Hegerle said. “We knew we need to steal that momentum right away and get that mojo right away because we felt that Columbia really feeds off that and if they get their energy going we could be in for a dogfight. So, that was one of our goals and we certainly accomplished that because we were so locked in and apparently we had a lot of adrenaline going.”
The Cougars (29-11) got off to a better start in the second set as they were up 4-3 but the Jimmies responded with a big run to take a 17-11 lead on a kill from Anna Holen. After a Columbia timeout with the score sitting at 19-13, the Cougars went on a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to 19-16. But the Jimmies responded and put the set away at 25-18 as a ball from the Cougars’ Allana Capella sailed out of bounds.
After the Cougars got off to a 14-10 lead in the third set, the Jimmies fought back to tie the set up at 14. When the Cougars were up 15-14 in the third set, the Jimmies had five errors, and the Cougars had nine kills and one error; over the last 13 points of the match, the Cougars had one kill and four errors and the Jimmies only had one error.
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The Jimmies are back in action at 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 5, when they take on No. 3-ranked Midland University.
“It’s awesome,” Hegerle said. “What a great group and what a great season we’ve had and it’s the icing on the cake at this point of the national tournament to be one of four teams in the nation left playing and playing well. We know the teams that are left in it are such quality teams that it’s nice to be considered in that elite crowd."
CC 0, UJ 3
CC: 10 18 17–0
UJ: 25 25 25–3
Kills leaders:
CC: Allana Capella 8, Ellie Rockers 7, Sudan Gundogan 6
UJ: Anna Holen 18, Lexi Olson 9, Logan Sherman 7
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Assists leaders:
CC: Luisa Ferreira 23, Rockers 3, Camila Espejo 1
UJ: Kalli Hegerle 24, Paige Oswald 13, Ellie Holen 4
Aces leaders:
UJ: Hegerle 2, E Holen 1, Megan Moser 1
