Jaguars Volleyball Ties School Record For Wins in a Regular Season, 25-1 Overall After 3-0 Sweep Over K-M-S, J.V. Football Beats Kimball 26-6

Bennett Weller runs downfield for the Jaguars' first touchdown in their J.V. win over Kimball tonight.

The Jaguars won in three sets over neighboring Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg tonight. They are 25-1 going into the final regular season match, held tomorrow night in a home event against Holdingford. It will be Seniors' Night for the team. The underclassmen on the Jaguars' team have a nice surprise for the 8 seniors on the squad, something I had a little hand in helping out with. It will be a fun night, no doubt.

K-M-S falls to 13-7-2 overall. They are 5-5 in the Camden North, which is arguably the toughest Class A conference in Minnesota. The Fighting Saints were playing without fourth-year varsity player Nicole Pedersen, a 6-foot middle hitter, who was out with illness. It was a huge absence in their lineup, similar to if we played without Lensing for a match.

Holdingford is 13-11-1 overall. They are 4-2 in the Central Minnesota Conference. They raced out to a 4-1 start in the CMC, the best start in volleyball for Holdingford this decade. On October 9th, the Huskers dropped a heartbreaking 5-game match to Pierz, with the fifth game going 15-9 to the Pioneers.

This past Saturday at a tournament in Kimball, the Huskers went 2-1, with results as follows:
Holdingford 25-25, Royalton 16-17
Kimball 25-25, Holdingford 8-20
Holdingford 25-25, Eden Valley-Watkins 21-13

In recent years, the Jaguars have set and re-set the school record for volleyball wins in the regular season. In 1994, the Jaguars finished 22-0 before playoffs, the only undefeated regular season record in B-B-E history. In the playoffs that year, the Jaguars made a spirited run to the Sub-Section 5A-3 championship, in the old two-class volleyball system in Minnesota. They lost to Sauk Centre in a five-game match at St.Ben's University. That was the first time the Jaguars earned playoff hardware in volleyball.

In 2003, they set a new record by going 23-3 before opening up Sub-Section 6AA-17 playoffs. In 2005, they broke that record by going 24-2 before earning the program's first trip to "state". Then in 2006, they went 25-3 in the regular season before being upset by Montevideo in the Section 6AA championship.

The Jaguars J.V. football team won their final game of the season today, in a 26-6 win over visiting Kimball Area. I will be adding a photo album from that game, as well as their game against Pierz two weeks ago, at my online photo gallery.

The address is http://saukherald.mycapture.com Over MEA weekend I'll finally have a chance to catch up on all my photos, as I have yet to upload folders of J.V. football, varsity playoff girls tennis, J.V. girls tennis, 7th/8th grade football, and the varsity football's win at Kimball.

Area volleyball scores:
-Pierz 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1
(The Pioneers clinced 2nd place in the CMC, at 6-1, with this win over the Lakers. The Jaguars must lose to Holdingford tomorrow night in order for Pierz to tie for a share of the CMC crown. Pierz is 16-13 overall, and they could be a dangerous team in Sub-Section 6AA-North, where Sauk Centre and St.Cloud Cathedral reside.)
-Melrose Area 3, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 0 (Melrose is 12-13 overall, 5-7 in the West Central North Conference, LP-GE is 2-9 in the WCCN and 5-16-4 overall)

In a sidebar comment, how about the Benson Braves football team? They are experiencing an incredible turnaround after going 0-9 in 2007 on the gridiron. Last Friday they defeated defending West Central South Conference champion Montevideo 27-21 to push their record to 5-2. It's unfortunate that they are in Section 5AA, where A-C-GC and Eden Valley-Watkins will chew up the competition and battle for a trip to state in the section championship. One of Benson's assistant coaches is Roger Lindahl, who played for some of Belgrade's toughest Redmen football teams in the late 1970s.

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