Thursday, September 22, 2022

Eagles take it to the Jaguars in disappointing volleyball loss (VIDEO)

(Scoreboard is posted below as of late Friday afternoon.)

An incredible winning streak has come to a close for the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team. For the first time since at least 2001, the Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles have defeated our Jaguars in Central Minnesota Conference action. The last time EV-W won over B-B-E in the CMC in volleyball was long before any of our current players were born. Many of their parents were still in high school. The winning streak lasted at least 20 years. 


Let's try that again! My memory was jogged back to life when I recalled the 2006 season...the year 2006 was the last year that EV-W defeated our Jaguars in the CMC. That's been confirmed. EV-W came to B-B-E during Homecoming week and won a wild, crazy 3-2 match on September 28, 2006. I can't believe I forgot about that night. It was a bizarre night during which the actual net in the main gymasium malfunctioned. It took a while to get it fixed and "square" and official and ready for a varsity match. B-B-E was "off" the entire night and lost to a team they had no business losing to.

Anyway! That is that. B-B-E's winning streak over EV-W lasted from 2007 through 2021 in Central Minnesota Conference action.

Some other history:
B-B-E joined the CMC in 1999, and they went 4-3 in the first year as part of this league. B-B-E was a perfect 8-0 in 2000 and then went 4-4 in the 2001 season. They were 6-1 in the CMC in 2002, and the team that beat them in the CMC in 2002 was Pierz, who tied for first place with the Jaguars. B-B-E was a perfect 7-0 in the CMC in 2003. They were 6-1 in the CMC in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The GOOD news for this season is that the CMC is not lost for the Jaguars. The difficult part, however, is that they'll need some help in order to at least win a share of the CMC this year. More on that later.

**Here's a shabbily recorded video recorded when the team ran in for prematch drills; it features a glimpse of the Future Volleyball Star camp members, who were all very excited to greet their varsity counterparts:


In tonight's match...
The Eagles won 26-24 in a wild game one during which the Jaguars trailed by seven points before coming back to gain a late 23-22 lead. B-B-E then played an excellent brand of volleyball and took game two 25-18 with a performance far superior to what they showed in game one. I think the most disappointing part of tonight's loss was that they did not play that hard in game one as they did in game two.

Speaking of game one...here's video featuring B-B-E's late comeback that fell short:
8

The video above begins with the Jaguars trailing by two points in game one. I believe the score was EV-W 20, B-B-E 18. I don't know why I didn't say the actual score at the start of the video. It was a crazy game to watch. Our Jaguars looked pretty rough in the early stages. EV-W had a kill and an ace serve in successive order to built a 15-8 lead. Ouch. The Jaguars later trailed 17-12 and then 18-14 before rallying. Ava's ace tip for a kill put the Jaguars up 23-22, and they were looking sharp and on the verge of taking that ever-important opening set. The Eagles then got a kill and an ace serve back-to-back to gain game point at 24-23. Mueller launched an ace attack to tie it at 24-24, but the Eagles got back-to-back kills, including a tip of the ball off the net, to win 26-24.

The rubber set in game three was won by EV-W 25-23 to put the Jaguars into the difficult spot of having to win the fourth and fifth sets to come out as winners. Game four went to the Eagles by a 25-21 margin. At times the Jaguars were on their way to going quietly in that final set, and a couple late rallies came too little and far too late. The Eagles were tenacious the entire night and defeated B-B-E even though the Jaguars had a very strong hitting percentage of 26. I'm going to track down EV-W's statistics, because it will be interesting to see what their stat figures show.

B-B-E falls to 12-5 overall and 2-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference. EV-W is now in the driver's seat and in first place alone. This is based on the assumption that Holdingford lost at Paynesville tonight...we'll see if I'm right.

Next: the Jaguars host Parkers Prairie next Monday in an important sub-section match up. It's without a doubt a must-win situation if the Jaguars want to earn a lock on the No. 1 playoff seed in Sub-Section 6A-South. That's not something to mess around with.

Central Minnesota Conference volleyball scores on September 22:
Paynesville Area 3, Holdingford 1
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 3, Royalton 1
Kimball Area 3, Maple Lake 0


More to come. I still hope to record a short sports show yet tonight.



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