Let's Make This a Habit!! Jaguars Volleyball Repeats as Section 5A Champions ... State-Bound Once Again!!

Match-winning ace attack by Maggie Gruber, plus the team celebration immediately following the win.

The Class A fifth-ranked Jaguars volleyball team will take a 30-1 record into next week's state volleyball tournament. I am predicting they will be seeded #3 out of the 8 teams at state. I predict Bethlehem Academy (Section 1A champs) will be number one, with Windom (Section 3A champs) being number two.

The previous best record in volleyball at B-B-E stood at 28-4, earned in 2005 and 2006.

On Sunday at 8:40am, I'll be posting complete information on who the Jaguars will play in the state quarterfinal match. The time of that will be either 1:00 or 3:00 on Thursday, November 6th, at St.Paul's Xcel Energy Center.

In tonight's match, the Jaguars cruised in game one behind a powerful attack and a high level of energy and enthusiasm, winning 25-12. Game two was simply classic, as both teams matched one another punch-for-punch in what Coach Weller described as a "drawn-out" battle during his post-match radio interview.

Video from a timeout late in Game 2, when the Jaguars were fighting back from a 19-16 deficit.


What I found most noteworthy about the match tonight was that there was not one ounce of negativity on the Jaguars' side of the court at any moment of the three games. Even when the Jaguars fell behind by 3,4,5-point margins in game two, they hung together and delivered an amazing 26-24 win.

**Update at Midnight!...I just found out the 7th team out of the 8 teams for "state"... Chisolm was upset by Deer River in the Section 7A championship, losing 3-0 to the unranked Warriors, who move to 25-5 on the season. Chisolm ends 22-3, and they were at "state" in 2007 when they finished 4th in their first-ever volleyball trip to the big show, so this was a tough loss for their program. Their football team won last night to advance to the football state tournament, beating East Central 12-10 in Section 7A, but the magic from that win could not carry over to volleyball for the Bluestreaks.

At 12:08am, I found out the final score for the complete list of Class A teams at the 2008 state tournament. Southwest Christian 3, Meadow Creek Christian 0 was the result out of Section 4A.

Here's the list of Class A teams who will make up the field at the state tournament next week... I have them listed by section, and in bold the state-rankings in the final Class A Coaches' Poll...
#1- Bethlehem Academy 1
#2- Martin County West unranked
#3- Windom 2
#4- Southwest Christian, Chaska 7
#5- B-B-E! 5
#6- Ada-Borup 6, tie
#7- Deer River 19
#8- Lake of the Woods unranked

I hope out of the seven other coaches besides Coach Weller who will be voting on the state seedings, they will put a big emphasis on the coaches poll. That puts us in the running for a #3 seed.

We're 30-1 and we had a strong schedule in my opinion. I really feel that we should be talked of as one of the top teams in this field of 8. The state-rankings have held somewhat true... the 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7th-ranked teams are in the final 8. That's 5 of 8 being rated in the top 7.

The other three (Martin County West - Deer River - Lake of the Woods) are good as well. I won't say anything to the contrary. I don't need someone googl-ing this website and using what I say as fodder to motivate a potential opponent to our Jaguars!

Let the prognostication begin! (that long ugly word means "predicting" in lay man's terms)...here we go, those 7 other teams will be who our Jaguars will be duking it out with next Thursday/Friday/Saturday. What's up for grabs are a handful of trophies = state champs, state runners-up, 3rd place, 4th place, consolation champs, and 6th place. Six teams will grab one of those trophies, and two will come home with a simple "State participants" trophy.

At around 1:00am I'll be writing out my predictions about who will be the top four seeds. I'll then talk a little about the other four teams who will make up the "blind draw", as the brackets will be created on Sunday morning after the 7:30am coaches' conference call.

Joining the Jaguars out of Section 6AA will be the St.Cloud Cathedral Crusaders, who won tonight 3-1 over Rocori. Also in Class AA, Stewartville is back at "state" after a 3-2 win over Caledonia in Section 2AA. Marshall (who has no business being in Class AA) defeated Yellow Medicine East 3-0 in Section 3AA to advance to state once again.

Out of Section 8AAA, an incredible heart-breaking loss for Alexandria took place. Words would not describe how tough of a loss this was. After leading 2-1 in games over favored St.Michael-Albertville, the Cardinals fought for a 20-20 tie in game four but were unable to pull through. They lost game four 25-20. Then in game five, the Cardinals fell behind 14-10!! They somehow staved off match point to TIE the game at 14-all! In rally scoring that is amazing. Alexandria pulled ahead 17-16!! Game five ultimately went to St.Michael-Albertville 19-17 as the Knights scored 3 straight points to close out the win. I can't even imagine what it was like at St.Cloud Tech's high school gym.

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