JC runs the table

336701+xx-col-bw-teaser.jpg — John M. Steiner / The Sun Jamestown College volleyball players celebrate winning a set during Wednesday's match against Valley City State at the Hansen Center.

By Sun Staff

November 05, 2009 at 6:34 AM

A letdown? Not going to happen.

Jamestown College finished off a perfect conference season with a sweep of rival Valley City State on Wednesday night at the Hansen Center.

The Jimmies defeated the Vikings 25-15, 26-24, 25-19. In the process, the Jimmies:

r Finished a perfect 14-0 in the Dakota Athletic Conference.

r Ran their winning streak to 15 matches.

r Ended the regular season perfect on their home court (8-0, with every win a sweep),

r Ended the DAC season with their 13th sweep in 14 league matches. In all, the Jimmies won 39 of 40 sets in DAC play.

"We could have easily let down," Jimmie junior outside hitter Samantha Revering said. "Everyone's been asking us if we were going to relax, but we don't want to do that. We want to keep pushing to the end."

"You just don't know how we're going to approach this game," Jimmie coach Jon Hegerle said. "We've already won the conference, we're looking forward to the playoffs.

"The energy in the gym tonight was palpable. That gave the team a lot of energy."

A 12-3 run in the first set turned a 7-6 VCSU lead into an 18-10 JC edge. The Jimmies built their advantage to 22-13 on an Allison Church kill and a Jada Meiklejohn ace and finished off a 25-15 win.

Leading 18-11 in the second set, the Jimmies nearly let one slip away. VCSU went on a 13-5 run, taking a 24-23 lead and earning a shot at set point on a kill by Jenna Kolb. But the Jimmies called a timeout and reeled off three straight points -- a Shannon Fee kill to tie it and back-to-back kills by Ali Edwards to pull out a 26-24 win.

The Jimmies built a 15-9 lead in the third set, but Valley City State battled back. VCSU pulled within one point on three occasions, the last at 19-18. But Church had two kills and an ace during a closing 6-1 Jimmie run.

"Valley City really competed hard," Hegerle said. "They're a better team than we played the first time. They've figured some things out. Whenever we had an intensity letdown, they made a run at us.

"At the end of games 2 and 3, our players stepped up and started to terminate the ball. Ali Edwards came up big at the end of game 2 and Allison Church came up big at the end of game 3. And Sam Revering was tough as always."

Revering led a balanced offensive attack with 11 kills for JC. Shannon Fee added 10 and Edwards nine.

"We always try to put pressure on our opponent, and we did a good job of that," Revering said. "Valley City did a good job competing."

Kayla Fee dished out 37 assists, Church led the team with two aces and Revering had a team-high eight digs. Katie Zent had a team-high three blocks.

While the Jimmies had clinched the conference title and the No. 1 seed for the postseason tournament early, they still wanted to keep their homecourt streak alive.

"That was one of our goals, but we're not done yet," Revering said. "We still have other goals to pursue."

Like a conference postseason title that was denied them last season. And a trip to the national tournament. The Jimmies are three wins away, and they have the comfort of knowing they'll play at home as long as they keep on winning.

The Jimmies will host No. 8 seed Dakota State at 7 p.m. on Saturday night in the quarterfinals.

Jamestown College 3, Valley City State 0

Valley City State 15 24 19

Jamestown College 25 25 25

Jamestown College statistics

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

Krysten Williams: 6 digs.

Allison Church: 5 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs,

Ali Edwards: 9 kills, 5 digs, 1 block.

Becca Price: 1 ace, 3 digs.

Kayla Fee: 1 kill, 37 assists, 1 ace 6 digs, 1 block.

Katie Fediuk: 1 kill, 1 dig, 2 blocks.