Step II: moving on to the 'Ship! B-B-E Jaguars land sub-section finals berth! (VIDEOS!)

They are heading on! Moving on to the 'SHIP! THIS NEVER GETS OLD. NOT FOR ONE SECOND!

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team won in three sets tonight against a scrappy, hustling and determined K-M-S Fighting Saints squad. The sub-section semi border battle featured a near-packed gymnasium with deafening crowd noise at times. It was playoff volleyball at its best on our home court! The Fighting Saints play in the completely stacked, brutally tough Camden Conference and have seen just about everything there is to see on a volleyball court. That showed all night, as they did not back down from B-B-E's relentless attack. The Jaguars had to elevate their level of play all night long, and they did. Terrific performance!

The Fighting Saints finish 12-17 overall. They had eight seniors on the roster.

When and where do they play next? Read further below on this blog post to see that! And how many sub-section championship berths has our volleyball program earned? I'll tell you how many: 20! YES! That's 20. B-B-E's volleyball program now has earned 20 sub-section finals appearances in school history dating back to the first time they achieved that feat in 1994. Of those previous 19 appearances, I was fortunate enough to witness 16 of them! As I said earlier and have said many times before: this never, ever gets old!!!

**Here's footage from the end of game one tonight:


The Fighting Saints were what volleyball technicians would call an "in system" unit as the match got underway. They were firing with a high level of energy and enthusiasm while enjoying a great following of fans. Their passing was crisp, they had outstanding serve-receive and their blockers were meeting what B-B-E's attackers were dishing out. Two early kills put K-M-S ahead 3-2, and they had back-to-back kills for a 5-3 lead. K-M-S later had a kill and then an ace block to go up 7-4. Enter middle hitter Allison Dingmann, who knocked down a kill for a badly-needed side out. Ava Mueller then crushed an attack into a block attempt for a kill, and she hit for a second straight kill to tie it at 7-7. The Jaguars were rolling! The scoring streak reached eight in a row with Kylie Weller rattling off three straight ace serves to put the Jaguars in front 12-7. Coach Molenaar needed a timeout.

Out of that early timeout, K-M-S got an ace block for a side out. Mueller quickly knocked down a kill for a 13-8 lead. K-M-S had back-to-back hitting errors, and a kill by Brooklyn Fischer made it 17-9. Mueller had back-to-back kills to bring game point, and a Fighting Saints hitting error finished the game in favor of the Jaguars by a 25-12 score.

**Here's a video from the middle portion of game two tonight:


That previous video begins with the Jaguars ahead 17-12 after Anna Jaeger earned an ace serve. The video ends with the Jaguars holding a 21-15 lead.

Game scores for the night were 25-12, 25-19, 25-18. The Jaguars had a stellar night at the net with 41 kills on 109 attacks and just eight hitting errors! Wow! That made for a 30.3 percent hitting mark to go with 10 ace serves, 6 solo blocks and 2 block assists. In game three, senior Ava Mueller eclipsed the 1,000 career kills mark. What an achievement for her and the team!

**And the Jaguars take the court tonight!:


NEXT: the Jaguars (23-6) advance to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship, which will be at 7:30 p.m. next Thursday, November 3 at Fergus Falls high school. Their opponent will be No. 2-seeded Brandon-Evansville. The Chargers won 3-0 tonight against No. 3-seeded Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley; game scores were 25-19, 25-22, 28-26. Brandon-Evansville is 17-10 overall. They finished 7-2 in the 10-team Little Eight Conference, which was good for third place alone ahead of Underwood and Parkers Prairie (tied for fourth at 6-3 each).

**And here's a video uploaded late Friday night featuring senior Ava Mueller talking about tonight's win:


Sub-Section 6A-North semifinal volleyball scores on October 28:
Henning 3, New York Mills 0 (5th-seeded Eagles finish a great season 21-7 overall)
No. 3-seeded Breckenridge 3, No. 2-seeded Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 0

Sub-Section 3AA-North volleyball quarterfinals on October 28:
Minnewaska Area 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 1 (big upset win by the Lakers, who are 12-14)
Litchfield 3, West Central Area 1
Paynesville Area 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0
New London-Spicer 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 1

In Section 5AA play tonight, Maple Lake won 3-0 against visiting Spectrum in their play-in round match. The Irish (11-13) move on to the Section 5AA quarterfinals. Kimball Area had a No. 4 seed in Section 5AA which earned them a first-round bye. In Section 6AA, No. 10-seeded Holdingford improved to 15-12 overall with an upset 3-0 win at No. 7-seeded Foley in their play-in round match.