JAMESTOWN -- Jamestown High School head volleyball coach Sara Hegerle was realistic on Tuesday night
"I wouldn't give it an A+ and I don't think our players would either," Hegerle said in an interview following the Jays' first match of the season. "They know they can do better."
While the Blue Jays may be able to do better, game No. 1 of the year was a sweep.
Jamestown defeated Bismarck St. Mary's 25-23, 27-25, 25-18 to start the year off at 1-0 in the Western Dakota Association. Hegerle and the Blue Jays will be back competing on Saturday in Williston. The match against the Coyotes is set to begin at 2:30 p.m.
While Jamestown is returning 11 players from the Blue Jays' 2024 team, there were still some first-game jitters early in the first set which led to a 5-1 run by St. Mary's.
"These kids all played at a high level but they haven't played with this group in front of a bunch of people who want to see what they are going to do," JHS head coach Sara Hegerle said. "There was weird, jittery mistakes that I don't foresee happening again."
Many of the mistakes didn't repeat themselves.
In the first, the Blue Jays rallied to take a 15-12 lead and while St. Mary's got back into it, Jamestown worked to shut down their chances as best they could -- mainly by hitting the ball.
A powerful kill from Amelia Newman avoided St. Mary's blockers and tied things up at 20. Junior Lucy Falk got the Jays back into the lead with an ace to make it 21-20. A series of errors on the Saints allowed for the Jays to score four of the next seven to win the match 25-23.
"We got blocked a couple of times but for the most part, I said, 'just swing -- swing into the block. We knew we would get blocked but if we tip, we're showing that we're afraid. Once we started swinging, things started to go better for us."
Newman led the Jays' attack with 11 kills while Lucy Falk and Mari Anderson both totaled seven kills. Claire Marker ended the first match of her junior year with six kills.
The Jays' arms kept them in control of the second set -- mostly.
Jamestown was up 24-20 but the Saints rallied back to tie things up at 24. From the back row, Lucy Falk secured the go-ahead score to give the Jays the edge.
A side-swipe by St. Mary's Lily Turman tied it up at 25 but on the next point, officials called a net violation on the Saints to bring up the Jays' second game point. Falk smashed home a cross-court shot that left Saints' defenders reeling and ended the chess-match 27-25.
St. Mary's asserted its dominance in the beginning of set three but by halfway through, it was clear who was in control.
Falk got one in between the blockers and the net to make it 24-18 Jays. Haley Attleson hit a shot on the right side that skimmed off the arms of the DS to end the match.
"I thought we finished plays, we have a new middle who is really exciting to watch, our returners did a good job," Hegerle said. "... Nothing is going to be perfect. We're trying different lineups, we're putting different kids out there and that can sometimes be hard for a team to work through but so far they are trusting what I am doing and that I am looking out for their best chance to succeed."
SM -- Kills: Mataya Messer 10, Lilly Edinger 5, Ellie Dirk 5, Lily Turman 5. Assists: Sophia Schlinger 13, Maggie Meyer 10, Sofia Meyer 1. Digs: Sophia Link 9, Sofia Meyer 8, Ellie Dirk 8, Maggie Meyer 7. Blocks: Messer 5. Aces: Hope Weller 1.
JHS -- Kills: Amelia Newman 11, Lucy Falk 7, Mari Anderson 7, Claire Marker 6, Haley Attleson 4, Hannah Attleson 2, Claire Iverson 2. Assists: Hannah Attleson 23, Quinn Biloff 6, Jetta Peterson 1. Digs: Peterson 15, Newman 7, Falk 7, Adisyn Yunck 5, Biloff 4, Hannah Attleson 3, Marker 2. Blocks: Marker 2, Anderson 1, Haley Attleson 1, Hannah Attleson 1. Aces: Hannah Attleson 2, Falk 2, Anderson 1, Biloff 1.