September 22, 2023

GRITTY TIGERS COMEBACK COMES UP SHORT AFTER 0-2 HOLE AGAINST NO. 16 JIMMIES IN FIVE SET THRILLER

No. 16 Jamestown

12-5, 5-0

(RV) Dakota Wesleyan

11-8, 2-2

Final

No. 16 Jamestown 12-5, 5-0

(RV) Dakota Wesleyan 11-8, 2-2

Mitchell, S.D. – The Dakota Wesleyan Tiger volleyball team battled back and forth with the Jimmies but ultimately the comeback came up short losing the fifth set 15-12. DWU was down two sets to none but clawed their way back to even it up with a 26-24 set three and convincing 25-19 set four wins. The Tigers played a clean game with 51 total kills and 17 attack errors (UJ had 14 total blocks) for a .204 percentage which was better than the Jimmies .175. Ady Dwight went over 20 kills for the fourth time this season and 19^th time in her career. Elizabeth Tyler recorded her fourth double-double of the season with her 12 kills and digs. Tya Weideman led in the back row with her 24 digs followed by Carlee Laubach with a career-high 14. Dakota Wesleyan dropped to 11-8 (2-2 GPAC) while Jamestown improved to 12-5 (5-0 GPAC) on the season.

The Quick Details vs. Jamestown

Score:

(RV) DWU 2 – No. 16 UJ 3 (20-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-19, 12-15)

Records:

(RV) DWU 11-8 (2-2 GPAC)

No. 16 UJ 12-5 (5-0 GPAC)

Recap

The No. 16 Jimmies entered Mitchell riding a 20-game win streak against the (RV) Tigers, dating back to 2005-06 (as far back as posted online). In set one, Dakota Wesleyan got the first point but then UJ grabbed the lead, a lead that DWU would threaten but would never be given up by the Jimmies. The Tigers errors combo with the Jamestown attack proved to be too much to overcome in the first set. Jamestown racked up a staggering 16 kills in the set compared to the Tigers eight. Half of those eight kills came from Dwight who had four kills on nine attempts and the lone error. Anytime Dakota Wesleyan strung together a mini run of three or four the Jimmies responded with one of their own. DWU came within one-point of UJ eight times during the set but couldn't grab that lead back. Jamestown closed out the Tigers on a 6-3 run, grabbing set one 25-20.

Set two was another back-and-forth tight set that had the CAC rocking from the first serve to the last. It was Dakota Wesleyan jumping out to an early 3-0 lead to open the set getting punishing attacks from Dwight and Abigail Brunsing. The Jimmies fought back though to tie it at five thanks to a 4-0 run in which Jamestown's Darienne Johnson was responsible for every point (3 kills & 1 block). With the game tied at 12, Dakota Wesleyan went on a 7-3 run to grab their biggest lead of the match at 19-15, drawing a UJ timeout. The Jimmies responded and chipped away at that lead, scoring two-points to every Tiger point for a 25-23 set two final. Both teams went kill for kill, ace for ace, and error for error resulting in 10 ties and seven lead changes in the set alone.

The Tigers, facing an 0-2 hole needed a spark in the third set or they would go down in three straight. DWU got just that by edging the Jimmies out in another close set that had to go extras at 26-24. DWU opened the set on a massive 10-2 run, that included a six straight point run during it. Jamestown head coach, Jon Hegerle looked as though he wasn't going to use a timeout and let his team figure it out on their own, but the game was slowly starting to slip out of reach drawing a timeout with the score at 7-1. With the score at 10-2 and trending to be a blowout set win for the Tigers, UJ put their foot down and answered with a 11-2 run to grab their first lead of the set at 13-12, drawing a timeout from Tiger's head coach Lindsay Wilber. The Jimmies only grew on that lead after the timeouts, claiming a 17-14 advantage forcing Wilber to burn another timeout to refocus her squad. The resilient Tigers clawed back to tie it at 21, but later in the set faced match point with the Jimmies up 24-23. With the match on the line freshman setter Kayleigh Hybertson went to Brunsing who put the ball down hard and kept the Tigers alive. DWU went on to collect the next two points from back-to-back attack errors by UJ to earn the 26-24 set three win and keep the comeback alive.

Set four started the same way as set three with the Tigers jumping out to a commanding 8-1 lead resulting in a Jamestown timeout. Again, Jamestown started to chip away at that lead and looked like they might grab the lead back like they did in set three. However, this time the Tigers kept the Jimmies at arm's length, leading by at least three for the entire set on their way to a convincing 25-19 set four win, forcing a set five and switch the momentum to the DWU side. Set four was the Tigers most efficient set with their .400 attack percentage compared to the Jimmies .083.

With the crowd roaring for both sides (Jamestown traveled a lot of fans) set five was shaping up to be a good one. The Tiger faithful was going crazy, making it hard to hear yourself think when DWU jumped out to a 4-1 lead. The Tigers got three of their four points off UJ attack errors during the run. Jamestown not going away easy though, responded to tie the game at seven all drawing a timeout from Wilber to talk things over and calm the younger DWU squad down. This timeout didn't pan out for the Tigers as the Jimmies continued their run with four straight points, making it seven straight points for UJ giving them a 11-7 lead. DWU answered with three straight points to narrow the UJ lead to one. Jamestown answered with three of their own to put it at match point at 14-10. The gritty Tigers continued to fight with back-to-back points, but ultimately fell 15-12.

Head-to-Head (Jamestown)