Jimmies advance with sweep over Saint Mary in pool play

Dec. 2—SIOUX CITY, Iowa. — After a tight first set, the No. 2-ranked University of Jamestown pulled away in the second set and swept the No. 15-ranked College of Saint Mary (25-23, 25-13, 25-22) on Friday, Dec. 2, at the Tyson Events Center.

The first set was all about the importance of timeouts, as the Jimmies (34-2) went on a 4-0 run to take an 18-15 lead, drawing a Flames timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Flames (21-9) responded with a 4-0 run of their own to take a 19-18 lead. The teams traded runs from there with the Jimmies taking a 22-20 lead, drawing another Flames timeout. This time it appeared to work better for the Jimmies as they responded with two points in a row to put them on the edge of a first-set win at 24-21, but the Flames fought back to cut the deficit to 24-23 on a kill from Kamryn Willman, drawing a Jimmies timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Jimmies' Lexi Olson got the kill to give the Jimmies the 25-23 first-set win.

"I think we were still trying to find our rhythm but we talked and I called a timeout at the end of set one and said the same thing," Jimmies head coach Jon Hegerle said. "I said, 'you guys I want you to get up and I want you to be aggressive and I want you to challenge their block and swing hard at the ball.' I thought we did a nice job of saying alright, we're going to go after it and we played better."

The Jimmies asserted their dominance in the second set sprinting out to an 11-3 lead. After the Jimmies pushed the lead out to 22-8, the Flames went on a 5-1 run to cut the deficit to 23-13. The Jimmies responded with a 2-0 run finished off when Kalli Hegerle tucked one down the line to give the Jimmies the 25-13 second set win.

"I think it was a good balance between fun and intensity and that's what you could really feel on the court," Kalli Hegerle said. "We just poured into each other and it worked out for us."

The third set was more competitive than the second set, as the Jimmies trailed 9-7 early before going on a run to take a 12-11 lead. Later in the set, the Jimmies were able to go on a 3-0 run to push their lead out to 19-15 on a Darienne Johnson kill. The Flames would climb back into it getting their deficit as close as one point on two occasions but the Jimmies were able to win the match as a shot from Makenna Freeman sailed too long to give the Jimmies the 25-22 third-set win.

During the Oct.15, five-set win for the Jimmies over the Flames, the Flames' Freeman and Lexie Langley combined for 31 kills. In this one, the two outside hitters combined for 16 kills, with Langley getting 12 of those.

"I thought we did a really nice job of slowing them down," Jon Hegerle said. "I think a big part of that was keeping them where they couldn't really set their middles so they had a send a lot of balls outside and we were able to come out there. We had a couple good blocks and if our blocks are set we can channel that to our defenders and we have really good defenders."

The Jimmies are back in action at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3, when they face No. 16-ranked Columbia College.

"We knew if we lost today we would be done so it's kind of the same situation," Kalli Hegerle said. "But just going into tomorrow, being confident in ourselves, but knowing that this is a super cool opportunity and having fun with it."

CSM 0, UJ 3

CSM: 23 13 22 — 0

UJ: 25 25 25 — 3

Kills leaders:

CSM: Lexie Langley 12, Mackenzie Vitosh 7, Rachel Rosenquist 7

UJ: Kalli Hegerle 14, Anna Holen 13, Aleah Zieske 10

Assists leaders:

CSM: Lauren Anderson 22, Miranda Ring 11, Vitosh 1, Langley 1, Rachel Cushing 1, Makenna Freeman 1

UJ: Hegerle 26, Paige Oswald 17, Ellie Holen 3

Aces leaders:

CSM: Anderson 2

UJ: Hegerle 2, Tenley Buddenhagen 2, E. Holen 1, Megan Moser 1