Jaguars start season with 4-set win over NL-S (VIDEOS)

Facing a tall, senior-laden lineup for the season opener, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team had their work cut out against undefeated New London-Spicer. The Wildcats (4-0) entered the match with four tournament wins to their credit at the Albany Invitational last Friday. One was a three-set win over No. 8-ranked New London-Spicer, and another was against Central Minnesota Conference perennial challenger Maple Lake.

NL-S's roster features 8 seniors with 6 players listed at 5'11" or taller. Their program also features 16 freshman players in the Class of 2029 who are split across the JV and C-squad teams. B-B-E's program is also fortunate to have a large freshman class of volleyball players totaling 14 who split between JV and C-squad.

Here's a video from game one tonight ending on a huge ace block by Kacey Fischer:


After each team split the opening sets, the Jaguars rocked NL-S in game three with a 25-18 win. B-B-E won game one 25-18, and NL-S squeezed out game two 26-24.

Game four was a grinder in the early stages with NL-S holding a 9-7 lead after they initially trailed 3-1. A strong run at the service line by Makenna Roelike fueled an 8-0 run that put the Jaguars in control. The Wildcats scored 3 of the next 4 points, but a Teagan Dingmann kill gave the Jaguars a 17-12 lead. A kill and ace serve by NL-S cut B-B-E's lead to 19-17. Out of a B-B-E timeout, Kacey Fischer had a kill and then an ace serve for a 21-17 lead. B-B-E finished the match by taking game four 25-21 as action closed out with an NL-S error.

Next: the Jaguars travel to Clara City next Tuesday, September 2 to face a loaded MACCRAY Wolverines team. MACCRAY won their season opener in a routine 3-0 sweep last Thursday at Dawson-Boyd. They hosted Adrian/Ellsworth tonight in a non-conference match.

Here's a postmatch interview with senior Kacey Fischer:


Senior outside hitter Kacey Fischer led the attack with 20 kills, 5 ace serves and 2 ace blocks.

More to come in the morning. I have a newspaper to get ready for the printing press!

Area volleyball scores on August 26:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 3, Dawson-Boyd 0
Paynesville Area 3, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 1
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 3, Central MN Christian-Prinsburg 2
Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 3, Benson 1
MACCRAY 3, Adrian/Ellsworth 1
#8 Sauk Centre 3, BOLD 0

Border battle! TONIGHT! On the radio (UPDATES!)

Tonight's border battle and season opener for the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood (107.1 FM). The opponent is undefeated (4-0) New London-Spicer, who is the defending Section 3AA champions. Smooth Magic 107 streams online at https://www.kmgk1071.com.

The JV Jaguars won three straight sets in a preliminary match.

Here's a video featuring the National Anthem and player introductions:


The Wildcats won the C-squad match.

Varsity updates...
In game one, the Jaguars came back from an early 8-6 deficit to take a 16-10 lead. Final: B-B-E 25, NL-S 18. Game two is starting at 19:25.

In game two, the Jaguars fell back 5-3 before forcing a tie at 8-8. NL-S then forged a 14-9 lead to force B-B-E into their first timeout. Late in the set, the Wildcats led 19-14 before B-B-E stormed back to force ties at 22-22 and 24-24. Final: NL-S 26, B-B-E 24. Game three is starting at 19:52.

The outcome will be posted in a new blog post after 9 p.m.

Volleyball Jaguars open at home on Tuesday with a border battle!

Look at what's coming! I'd say we better be prepared!

In spite of suffering extensive graduation losses on their varsity team, the New London-Spicer Wildcats appear to have reloaded just fine for the 2025 season. A year ago, NL-S went 18-9-1 and won the Section 3AA championship to advance to state. They are what's on deck for the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team for our season opener, which is next Tuesday, August 26 on the home court in Brooten. The JV and C-squad matches start at 5:30 p.m.

Last Friday at the Albany Invitational, the NL-S Wildcats went 4-0 including a three-set win against No. 8-ranked (Class 2A) Sauk Centre. In that match, the Wildcats won 15-12 in the third set.

The second match for the Jaguars is a road non-conference battle at MACCRAY in Clara City on Tuesday, September 2. The Central Minnesota Conference opener is two nights later (September 4) at home against Holdingford.

Here's video featuring most of the sermon from Pastor Kathy Terpstra one week ago in Gilchrist Township:


Pastor Kathy is one of a handful of area pastors who are providing "pulpit supply" for West Lake Johanna Lutheran church and Trinity Lutheran church. At some point this fall, their parish will name an Interim Pastor while their call committee searches for their future full-time pastor.

On Sunday afternoon...
The Regal Eagles amateur baseball team has earned a spot in the Elite 8 round of the state baseball tournament. They defeated Waterville 3-1 today at Brownton to move past the Round of 32. In another state game this weekend with a Region 8C team, the Farming Flames won 2-1 in walk-off fashion over Cologne on Friday night in Brownton. Both Farming and Regal play next on Saturday, August 30. On Saturday, Paynesville lost 10-3 in 12 innings to Glencoe to see their season end.

UPDATE: Regal faces Le Sueur in the Class C state quarterfinals on Saturday, August 30 at 1:30 p.m. in Hutchinson. Farming plays Hanska at 11 a.m. in Brownton on Saturday, August 30. If both Farming and Regal win, they will meet at 1 p.m. on Sunday, August 31 in Brownton in the state semifinals.

Girls' tennis Jaguars start season with a W (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team battled from beginning to end and came away with a hard-fought 4-3 win last Friday against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area. The match was scheduled as the first of two for Friday, with Staples-Motley also coming to town to face both teams. For the second year in a row, however, rainfall nixed additional matches, so the Jaguars went home with the 1-0 record.

Here's Coach Kristine Bents speaking with her team in the post-match huddle in Long Prairie:


The Jaguars have a triangular in Melrose tomorrow (Thursday) starting at 2 p.m. The third team coming to town is Parkers Prairie.

A terribly long day (VIDEO)

This has been an incredibly long Monday. In addition to the fact that it's been a long day, I didn't make it to everything that was on my Monday list. (Belgrade city council got missed.) As it stands, I've logged 14 hours of steady work today, and I'll get in at least 2 more hours of work before calling it. If I replicated this across all 7 days of the week, that would be at least 112 hours of work. Think about that! A typical week has been bringing 80 to 90 hours a week lately. Who else could replicate what I pull off each week? I'd love to know.

It's high time now to get fall sports coverage up to speed. That task is being split across the next two weeks, as I catch up to the coaches of cross country, volleyball and football. I still have to circle back and write about the tennis team's opener last Friday - which was a success! This period where summer fairs, town celebrations, amateur baseball and then fall sports all overlap has been wildly overwhelming for my sports department.

I'm slugging my way through the events of the first 2 weeks of August, when it piled on with county fairs in Glenwood, Willmar and Sauk Centre. A few more albums have been added to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's SmugMug gallery in the 2025 events folder: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2025-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.

Here's a video from the 2nd inning of the state tournament game on Saturday in Hutchinson:


I was thoroughly impressed by the crowd on hand during the Saturday games in Hutchinson. It's wonderful to see the strong support that Minnesota amateur baseball enjoys.

State amateur baseball yields 3 wins from Region 8C teams (VIDEO)

Paynesville, Farming and Regal all won their respective Class C state tournament openers on Friday and Saturday. More details to follow here later this evening.

Here's a video featuring the postgame celebration after Regal defeated Dumont:


Regal won 2-0 in 11 innings, with their 2 scores coming in the top of the 11th in Hutchinson. The previous night, Paynesville won by a 5-4 score in their state opener. Farming defeated Milroy on Saturday evening. In Elrosa's game, the Saints fell 6-2 to Windom.

Here's the starter introductions for Elrosa before they faced Windom:


Ethan Vogt started and pitched 6 innings, and he was relieved by Norway Lake-Sunburg draftee Weston Gjerde, who pitched in the 7th inning. Will VanBeck was closer in the the 8th inning. Elrosa scored once in the top of the 4th inning to make it a 2-2 tie game, but they were held scoreless across the final 5 innings.

GAME DAY at STATE! In Mcleod County ...with a rain delay

This is a BIG game day for the Bonanza Valley area as we support the Elrosa Saints and Regal Eagles amateur baseball teams at the Class C state tournament. The state openers are today for both teams in Hutchinson. The games are played at Veterans Memorial Field near the North Fork Crow River.

The Elrosa Saints were supposed to face Windom at 1:30 p.m. Before that, the Regal Eagles were to play at 11 a.m. against the Dumont Saints. However, all of central Minnesota took 2+ inches of rain this morning, so there is a game delay in place. The Regal vs. Dumont game is probably going to start at around noon. This shifts Elrosa's game back to probably a 2:30 p.m. start.

Both games are on 1150 AM in Albany: http://www.mykasm.com. Further updates to follow at this blog post after noon.

I'm slowly getting to extended August Fest coverage. Two videos from August Fest can be found at the "News" collection at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/section/news.

UPDATES...

It's 2:08 p.m., and Regal is entering the 9th inning at the plate. The score is 0-0.

Final: Regal 2, Dumont 0 in 11 innings! Crazy.

Elrosa's game started at 3:22 p.m.

After 3 innings, Windom has a 2-1 lead.

After 5 innings, Windom has a 4-2 lead.

Final: Windom 6, Elrosa 2. That's all she wrote.

August Fest (and more) - VIDEOS

There's a lot to get caught up on this week.

Here's a video from the early units of the Belgrade August Fest parade on Saturday:


In this video, you can see the outgoing Belgrade Royal Ambassadors nearing the end of their final parade.

Here's a video featuring a glimpse of the Stearns County Fair last Friday afternoon:


The weather featured sweltering, muggy heat on Friday at the fair. It was pretty gross all day and into the evening.

And back to Belgrade's August Fest...

Here's a video from the Friday night street dance just after Mid Flight began playing:


I heard that the Belgrade VFW had a "pretty good" weekend overall at August Fest. I'll speak a little on their behalf and say "Thank You" to all those who came out and supported the VFW through the chicken feed, Friday's street dance and Saturday's Belgrade Brawl.