The Jamestown College volleyball team got back to business at the Grand View Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, a day after falling twice in straight sets to a pair of very tough opponents during Friday's opener.
The Jimmies went the distance with both the Peru State College (Neb.) Bobcats and the Graceland University (Iowa) Yellowjackets. Jamestown College ended up falling to Peru State 15-10 in the fifth set, but the team earned a split on the day by defeating the Yellowjackets 15-12 in the decider to win by the final of 3-2.
Jamestown College came out of the gate a little sluggish against the Bobcats, falling in the first two games 25-22, 25-19. The slow start eventually took its toll in the end, after the Jimmies rifled off back-to-back 25-21, 25-20 set victories.
"We didn't come out and play extremely hard in the first couple of sets, and I was kind of disappointed with that," Hegerle said. "But I thought we competed hard after that.
"It could have gone either way. We just didn't get some breaks to go our way at the end, but that's the way it goes sometimes."
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bobcats took the final game 15-10, handing the Jimmies their third straight loss of the tournament. Junior outside hitter Katie Zent and junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Rogalla led the Jimmies with 14 and 11 kills, respectively.
Jamestown College attempted a total of 143 attacks in the game, but recorded just 46 kills and posted a hitting percentage of .147 in the match. The Jimmies gave away 25 points via hitting errors.
"(The Bobcats) were a scrappy team," Hegerle said. "I don't think we took extremely good quality attacks, but they played very good defensively and that was tough for us."
Jamestown College setters Kelsey Deragisch (22) and Jada Meiklejohn (18) combined for 40 assists in the match, while three Jimmies hit double figures in digs. Katie Lee posted 20 of them, Keely Gross notched 16 and Meiklejohn record 14 digs for Jamestown.
"To me, the trump card was the amount of energy they played with," Hegerle said. "They came out with a tremendous amount of energy and we couldn't match it. We did at times, but we were unable to maintain it."
The coach said that's something the Jimmies need to improve on moving forward. The Jimmies opened the tournament with a pair of 3-0 losses to No. 3 Columbia (Mo.) and No. 24 Grand View (Iowa).
"At times we just don't come out ready to fight, and other teams try to impose their will on us," Hegerle said. "We need to try harder to impose our will on them instead of letting them do it."
Jamestown College and Graceland University traded the first four games, starting with a 25-15 Yellowjacket win in the opening set, pushing things to 5 sets.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Jimmies trailed in the final game, but rallied to win the set (15-12) and the match (3-2).
"I thought Graceland was a better team than Peru State, but they didn't come out with as much energy as Peru State did," Hegerle said. "The last set we were down and we just found a way to be more consistent. I was pleased with how hard we played, and how hard we played considering we played back-to-back 5-set matches."
Zent (11), Heather Brown (11), Sarah Didychuk (11) and Sarah Becker (10) all went over 10 kills in the match for the Jimmies, while Meiklejohn directed the offense with 25 assists and Deragisch added 18. The Jimmies posted 27 blocks as a team, giving them 56 team blocks on the day.
The Jimmies (20-12, 6-1 DAC) have two regular-season matches left on the schedule, both against Dakota Athletic Conference opponents. Jamestown College first hosts Valley City State University this Wednesday at the Hansen Center, before traveling to Dickinson State University to face the Blue Hawks on Nov. 2.
"We still have that taste in our mouth when (Valley City) beat us in five at their place earlier this year," Hegerle said. "Our job will be to come out with some energy and get the Hansen Center rocking on our side."
Grand View Tournament
At Des Moines, Iowa
Saturday
ADVERTISEMENT
Peru State 3, Jamestown College 2
Jamestown College 22 19 25 25 10
Peru State 25 25 21 20 15
Jamestown College statistics
Katie Zent: 14 kills, 5 digs, 5 blocks.
Beth Segerholm: 1 ace, 2 digs.
Heather Brown: 5 kills, 1 dig, 9 blocks.
Emilee Schutta: 4 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs, 2 blocks.
ADVERTISEMENT
Alex Hanson: 3 kills, 2 digs, 1 block.
Kelsey Deragisch: 22 assists, 6 digs.
Katie Lee: 2 aces, 20 digs.
Sarah Becker: 5 kills, 1 dig, 9 blocks.
Janna Johnson: 3 kills.
Sarah Didychuk: 2 blocks.
Jada Meiklejohn: 1 kill, 18 assists, 14 digs.
Keely Gross: 1 assist, 16 digs.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kaitlyn Rogalla: 11 kills, 1 assist, 1 dig, 2 blocks.
Jamestown College 3, Graceland 2
Jamestown College 15 25 25 23 15
Graceland 25 19 21 25 12
Jamestown College Statistics
Katie Zent: 11 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 8 digs, 6 blocks.
Beth Segerholm: 1 assist, 1 dig.
Heather Brown: 11 kills, 1 assist, 3 digs, 6 blocks.
ADVERTISEMENT
Emilee Schutta: 1 dig.
Kelsey Deragisch: 1 kill, 18 assists, 6 digs.
Katie Lee: 17 digs.
Sarah Becker: 10 kills, 1 assist, 8 blocks.
Janna Johnson: 3 kills, 4 digs, 3 blocks.
Sarah Didychuk: 11 kills, 1 assist, 1 ace, 3 digs, 1 block.
Jada Meiklejohn: 25 assists, 2 aces, 6 digs.
Keely Gross: 13 digs.
Kaitlyn Rogalla: 5 kills, 2 assists, 1 dig, 3 blocks.
Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com
