(VIDEO) Welcoming home our ROCK STARS!

In case you missed it!

Here's the video from tonight...at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website:
https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/story/2018/11/01/sports/video-welcome-home-jaguars/731.html. The video should be done processing and available for viewing shortly after 19:00.

Have a great night, Jaguar Country! Signing off for a few hours of much-needed family time.

Another huge THANK YOU and shout-out to the Bonanza Valley State Bank of Brooten for being our feature, premier sponsor of B-B-E Jaguars sports coverage at the state volleyball tournament. We couldn't do this without the loyal, steady support of our local business community!

*Update: Ally Gruber was named to the Wells Fargo Class 1A All-tournament team.

Other exciting news: sophomore Karsee Kampsen finished the 2018 season with 1,010 set assists. She surpassed 2,000 set assists with her first set assist in game one of the Medford match on Friday. It gives me goosebumps knowing we have such a tremendously talented setter for two more years!

Also, in the Class 2A state championship match today in St. Paul, No. 4-seeded North Branch won 3-2 over favored and No. 3-seeded Marshall Area. The game five score? That score was 19-17. Unreal. I can't imagine the tension in the air late in that game five!! North Branch, champions of Section 7AA, went through the state tournament getting 3-2 wins in all three matches. They won in the semifinals over top-seeded Kasson-Mantorville 15-13 on Friday. On Thursday in the quarterfinals, they defeated No. 5-seeded Watertown-Mayer by a 15-8 score.

And I want to give a quick flashback post to 2010, the last year the Jaguars made it to state. That was also an exceptionally exciting season to be a part of! https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2010/11/jaguars-are-state-bound-absolutely.html.

This season marks just the second time in school history (B-B-E era) that the Jaguars have gone as far as the state Final Four round. In 2008, the Jaguars won the opener over Martin County West. They lost a crushing heartbreaker 3-2 to heavily-favored Windom in the semifinals. In the third-place match, they lost 3-0 to Ada-Borup.

And the clock struck midnight for my University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars volleyball team. Seeded No. 3 in their five-team conference tournament, the Cougars pulled off three straight upset playoff wins - ALL of them larger in magnitude than the previous - all the way to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Division III tournament. They beat No. 2-seeded UW-Superior in the UMAC semis, then No. 1-seeded and (at least) six-time defending UMAC champion University of Northwestern (St. Paul) to advance to the school's first-ever volleyball national tournament. UM-Morris then stunned No. 8-ranked (nationally) and No. 1-seeded (region) Gustavus Adolphus in the opening round of the Central Region tournament by a 3-0 sweep.

In the Round of 32 against St. Ben's today, the Cougars won two fiercely-contested 25-23 sets to go up 2-0. They were soundly defeated in game three, fought for a closer game four and then were in a very competitive game five before midnight struck. Game five: St. Ben's 15, UMM 11. They finish the year 23-12 but graduate just one senior off the 20-person roster.

• Finally, lost in the shuffle of the past 100-hour week I just went through was a shout out and congratulations to Ridgewater College and B-B-E 2018 graduate Morgan Gronli for their run to the NJCAA Region XIIIA tournament. The Warriors fell in the semifinals last weekend. They finished tied for second place in the seven-team MCAC Southern division standings at 8-4 with M-State Fergus Falls. Their final overall record was 13-13.