3 Sets To 2

NAIA National Championship Semifinals @ Sioux City, Iowa

Monday

Jamestown Def Midland University 26-24,15-25,25-10,18-25,15-12

Box Score

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (UJ)—The second-ranked University of Jamestown volleyball made program history Monday evening, advancing to the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship match for the first time with a five-set victory over No. 3 Midland (Neb.) at the Tyson Events Center.

The Jimmies (36-2) will face fourth-ranked Corban (Ore.) in Tuesday’s final at 7 p.m., nationally broadcast on ESPN3. The Knights (33-4) defeated top-ranked Eastern Oregon three sets to one in Monday’s first semifinal.

UJ snapped a streak of three straight losses in the national semifinals, including a four-set defeat at the hands of the Warriors in the 2020 season.

“What can you say? What a battle, what an epic match,” observed Jamestown head coach Jon Hegerle.

Jamestown also avenged a five-set home loss against Midland on October 5, despite holding a .225 to .118 edge in hitting percentage and committing 20 fewer attack errors (38-18). Since that loss nearly two months ago, the Jimmies have won 18 straight, 11 of those sweeps.

Monday’s match had all the feel of a championship match, with the teams trading the first 12 points. A kill by Aleah Zieske (SO/Spicer, Minn.) started a three-point run that forced Midland to take its first timeout. Once play resumed, Megan Moser (JR/Medina, N.D.) continued the run with an ace, making it 10-6.

The Warriors came back to tie the set at 16, then took a 19-17 lead with the help of two UJ attack errors. After the Jimmies used a timeout, Lexi Olson (SO/Langdon, N.D.) and Logan Sherman (JR/Marshall, Minn.) teamed up for a block on Addisyn Mosier to stop the run.

UJ head coach Jon Hegerle took his final timeout of the set with Midland up 24-23. Darienne Johnson (JR/Eastpointe, Mich.) came up with a thunderous kill to get the Jimmie crowd on its feet, then Kalli Hegerle (SR/West Fargo, N.D.) and Aleah Zieske followed suit with kills of their own as Jamestown came away with a 26-24 win.

After recording 16 kills in the opener, UJ was held to only nine in the second. Jamestown hit .091, their lowest mark since hitting .058 in a second-set triumph against Dordt (Iowa) on November 5. Midland kept the Jimmies out of rhythm offensively while forcing the defense out of position throughout set two. Jamestown faced an uphill climb, falling behind 10-4 before the Warriors went on a 6-0 run midway through to establish a double-digit lead. Midland closed with five of the final six points, evening the match with a 25-15 win.  

“We were pretty quiet, pretty low energy after the second set,” Hegerle said. “We just talked about weathering the storm. The big thing for us is inspiring people, and we got a little bit away from that. We were worried about the win/loss, but if we are out here inspiring people, things are going to go well on the court.”

If there were any questions how UJ would respond to dropping just their eighth set in the last 17 matches, the Jimmies answered them straight away. A 7-0 run erased an early Midland two-point lead, and the Jamestown front line came up with seven blocks in a dominating 25-10 win. Olson had two solo blocks and combined with Sherman on three others. The Warriors made 12 attack errors all told, hitting -.209 on 43 attempts in the frame.

The Jimmies carried the momentum from its 15-point win onto the fourth set, winning six of the first eight. Midland came up with four in a row to draw even, then gradually built an 18-14 lead. With five set points in hand, the Warriors only would need two of them, taking a 25-18 win to force a fifth set.

It was a reversal of fortune for the Warriors on the attack in set four, as they came up with 15 kills against just three errors. Jamestown had 14 kills, but eight miscues played a part in not being able to close the gap down the stretch.

UJ opened the race to 15 by taking the first three points and four of the first five before Midland put three consecutive points together, making it 4-4. Neither team led by more than one until the Warriors recorded another three-point run to go in front 9-7.

Jamestown called time to regroup, and the pause in play led to a Kalli Hegerle kill that made it 9-8. Zieske evened the score at 10 with a kill that deflected off a Warrior defender. The teams continued to trade points until 12, when Lexi Olson broke the tie with her 12th kill of the match. Anna Holen (SR/LaMoure, N.D.) put the Jimmies ahead by two with another kill, and then teamed with Johnson for a block to secure the victory.

Hegerle led UJ with 15 kills and 26 assists. Holen added 14 kills and Zieske 10. Paige Oswald (JR/Frazee, Minn.) had 25 assists. Defensively, Ellie Holen (JR/LaMoure, N.D.) had a match-high 30 digs. Olson finished with nine total blocks, including three solo, while Sherman had four block assists.

Abbey Ringler paced the Warriors with 15 kills. Hope Leimbach passed out 47 assists, Delanie Vallinch had 29 digs, and Lauryn Samuelson seven total blocks.

Sioux City, Iowa — The University of Jamestown is in the final four of the NAIA National Tournament for the fourth consecutive season, as they get a five-set win over Midland University (26-24, 15-25, 25-10, 18-25, 15-12) on Monday, December 5, 2022 at the Tyson Events Center.

The Jimmies are back in action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, when they take on Corban University