After going 8-5 to open the season at three tough road tournaments, the Jamestown College volleyball team has earned some home-cooking.
They'll finally get it Wednesday.
The Jimmies closed out a 3-1 weekend at the Viterbo (Wis.) Invitational by sweeping Waldorf (Iowa) and outlasting Northwestern (Iowa) in five sets on Saturday in LaCrosse, Wis.
It was the second time the Jimmies have beaten Waldorf, but the win over the perennially strong Red Raiders was the marquee victory.
"Year in and year out Northwestern is one of the top teams in the country. They're a little down, but are still very good," JC coach Jon Hegerle said. "We played with a lot of energy. We have a number of players still learning to play at this level and we made a number of errors because Northwestern plays so fast. But as the match went on we started handling those situations a little better and we caught up to the speed of the game.
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"We did play with a lot of energy throughout the match and were able to pull it out at the end."
Tied 2-2, the Jimmies won a competitive fifth game to earn the hard-fought 3-2 win.
"As a group we showed maturity throughout the match and that's the type of growth as a team we're looking for," Hegerle said.
Katie Lee had a busy match, finishing with 39 digs against the savvy Red Raiders.
"They were tough to defend, but I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job. Katie (Lee) really played well," Hegerle said.
Heather Brown led a balanced JC attack with 13 kills, including some key late swings, Hegerle said.
Katie Zent was strong all day, combining for a team-high 22 kills on the day. She also had seven block assists and one solo.
"Katie was a force in the middle," Hegerle said.
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Alex Hanson had nine kills in the Northwestern match. Sarah Becker and Sarah Didychuk added seven kills apiece.
Jada Meiklejohn and Kelsey Deragisch combined for 45 assists with 24 and 21, respectively.
The win over Waldorf came in a snappy 25-16, 25-16 and 25-17 decision.
The Jimmies (8-5) have three home matches this week, beginning Wednesday against Mayville State at 7 p.m.
"We're still a work in progress in putting together all of our offensive schemes and some of those types of things," Hegerle said. "But going 8-5 through this hard tournament schedule bodes well for us."
Jamestown College 3, Waldorf 0
Jamestown College 25 25 25
Waldorf 16 16 17
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Jamestown College statistics
Katie Zent: 10 kills, 1 block.
Beth Segerholm: 8 digs.
Heather Brown: 6 kills, 2 assists, 2 blocks.
Alex Hanson: 8 kills, 2 digs.
Kelsey Deragisch: 1 kill, 10 assists, 6 digs.
Katie Lee: 1 ace, 12 digs.
Sarah Becker: 4 kills, 8 blocks.
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Janna Johnson: 2 digs.
Sarah Didychuk: 1 dig.
Jada Meiklejohn: 20 assists, 1 ace.
Keely Gross: 1 dig.
Kaitlyn Rogalla: 1 assist, 3 blocks.
Jamestown College 3, Northwestern (Iowa) 2
Jamestown College 22 25 28 20 15
Northwestern 25 19 26 25 12
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Jamestown College statistics
Katie Zent: 12 kills, 5 digs, 8 blocks.
Beth Segerholm: 5 digs.
Heather Brown: 13 kills, 2 assists, 4 digs, 3 blocks.
Alex Hanson: 9 kills, 1 assist, 3 digs, 3 blocks.
Kelsey Deragisch: 2 kills, 21 assists, 2 aces, 7 assists.
Mattie McDonald: 2 digs.
Katie Lee: 2 assists, 1 ace, 39 digs.
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Sarah Becker: 7 kills, 6 digs, 4 blocks.
Sarah Didychuk: 7 kills, 16 blocks, 1 block.
Jada Meiklejohn: 24 assists, 14 digs.
Keely Gross: 9 digs.
Kaitlyn Rogalla: 13 kills, 1 assist, 3 digs, 3 blocks.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com
