Step IV: WE WON!!

Coaches, players and students gather for a wonderful group photo following the match tonight at Little Falls high school. (Lowrez)

WE WON GAME FIVE 16-14!!!!!

With the game tied 14-14, Karissa Jones delivered a DEVASTATING, perfectly-placed ace tip to put the Jaguars in front after they trailed 14-9! Then Brittany Berge delivered a DEVASTATING ace attack to end the match in favor of @bbevolleyball!

No kidding. The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team trailed FOURTEEN to NINE! And then reeled off SEVEN straight points to punch through again to the big show!!!

State bound again!! BELIEVE IT!!! This is the program's sixth trip to state since they first advanced in 2005.

The headlines I could come up with are endless...what an amazing match! It's almost unreal. Someone pinch me!!!!!!!

State opens on Thursday afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center. I haven't assessed the other state qualifiers in full yet. That will happen later tonight, when I'll take my biased colors off and give a good guess as to what the Class 1A state seeds will be.

Time to head home...I won't sleep for two days!!!

...and back from the long road trip!
Upon arriving back in Brooten, the first thing I noticed is that my throat seems to be pointing in the direction that it's going to be swollen shut! A little hoarse, I'd say. I told a few members of the student section prior to the match to (1.) focus on cheering for our Jaguars and (2.) make sure they don't have much if any for a voice when it's all done! We can take a couple days to get our voices back. Leave it all there! Put all you got into it!!! The team needed every last bit of anything we could give them. And it worked out.

**Second update after finally returning to Jaguar Country....Video of the end of the match will be posted around midnight**** Probably by 00:15. Stay tuned.

AND here it is! As I promised to a few of the Jaguars at McDonald's in Little Falls after we all left the high school tonight, I cut out the match point part of my game five video. I recorded the full game five, and needless to say, I was a full-blown basket case from start to finish. I have never seen anything like this in high school volleyball, and I have watched B-B-E Jaguar volleyball very closely year after year since the fall of 1994 (the first year the program played in a sub-section final). Once we took the 15-14 lead, I was going bonkers. Just dreading the thought of a loss by that point. To come back from a 14-9 deficit to gain a 15-14 lead and be one point away from state...that was just flat out insanity!



"Obviously they were focused, dummy!" is the first thought that crosses my mind when I take in that video clip. They were incredible. They are truly amazing student athletes and great students of the sport of volleyball.

Here's a quick, brief web article that represents the final work of the night...click on over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website to check that out (short link): https://bit.ly/2JZLciX. It has a short video clip that was from the first moments of game five tonight. Karissa Jones delivered a thunderous ace block to give the Jaguars a 1-0 lead. The Wolves then took a 2-1 lead before Brittany Berge smashed a kill down the line to tie it. She soon hit a kill for a 4-2 lead and then another kill for a 5-3 lead. Ava Mueller's kill made it a 6-4 lead. The Jaguars led 7-4 before giving up the 8-0 run that almost led to the demise of their season.

I just glanced at the match statistics. As a team, the Jaguars hit at with terrific 24 percent efficiency. That will win postseason volleyball matches! Also, the Jaguars had a 92.2 percent serving rate which is very good. In order to do well at state, serving needs to get in the 95-or-more percentage.

Good night! It is 03:56, and my day has lasted 21 hours. Thank the heavenly Lord for Daylight Savings Time right now!

##ConquerEveryDay
##WEBELIEVE
##JaguarStrong
##JaguarPride
##JaguarCountry
##HammerDown