Volleyball Jaguars improve to 2-0 (VIDEOS*)

Update on Friday...I got a second video added here that you can see further below featuring the final points score in the match. It brought quite the ending! Good stuff from our Jaguars! Also, a third video was added that features the end of game one. It's been a terribly busy day so far with a trip to Sauk Centre with the tennis team. Soon The Voice packs up for a long road to Bagley in northern Minnesota...***A football blog post will be added later this afternoon before I head north.

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team earned a second straight marquee win to start the new season. This was quite a match to take in! The teams split the first two matches before the Jaguars earned two straight wins by scores of 25-22 and 27-25 to close out a 3-1 win. Using tough serving the entire night, the Jaguars earned a whopping 12 ace serves, with many of those ace serves coming at opportune times when momentum was hard to come by.

This match was a seesaw battle the entire night, and game one started out in that fashion with the Jaguars leading 6-3 before falling behind 8-6 and then pulling ahead 10-8. They never trailed from that point on and won the first set 25-22 after winning the final three points. They led 22-18 earlier before MACCRAY closed it to 22-21. The Jaguars came on strong at just the right time with Kacey Fischer earning an ace block and a kill and Anna Jaeger then closing out the win with an ace serve.

The Jaguars led 3-1 in game two before falling behind 7-5. An ace tip by Kacey Fischer got the Jaguars back in front with an 8-7 score. Again the Wolverines pulled in front and led 11-10, but a kill from Adley Hagen later pushed the Jaguars in front 15-13. They later led 23-22 on an ace serve by Kacey Fischer, but the Wolverines earned the last two points scored to take the set by a 26-24 score.

Noteworthy: the Jaguars had 100 serves tonight in a four-set win, which is the same number of serves they had at Pine River two nights ago in a five-set win. The Jaguars served 87 percent against PR-B and 89 percent tonight. Sophomore Kacey Fischer led the team with 5 ace serves while piling up 21 kills on 33.3 percent hitting from 45 attacks. The Jaguars had just one solo block on Tuesday but had four tonight along with six block assists. Brooklyn Fischer received extra attention at the net by MACCRAY but still added 13 kills on 49 attacks while having one solo and one block assist.

Any time the Jaguars earn a win against a Camden Conference team is reason to celebrate. The Camden Conference is one of the toughest small school volleyball conferences in the state. MACCRAY is younger than they were last year, when they swept the Jaguars in Brooten on the same night of the opening week and eventually earned the Camden North title. Last year's Wolverines advanced to the Sub-Section 3A-North finals, where they were defeated by eventual state champion Minneota. A big loss for MACCRAY was Camden Conference MVP Sydney Thein, who continued her volleyball setting career at SMSU-Marshall. MACCRAY brought back two of their top hitters from that team, Brielle Jansen (sophomore 6'0" middle blocker) and Emma Thein (5'11" sophomore right side hitter). B-B-E's tough serving and impressive block helped keep MACCRAY out of system for much of the night. Thein had some stellar right side attacks that the Jaguars struggled to defend at times.

Here's a video from the middle of game one that starts with the Jaguars ahead 15-12:


**Here's the end of game four:


NEXT: the Jaguars host New London-Spicer next Tuesday in a huge border battle. The Wildcats are 3-1 overall with their four matches taking place on August 25 at the Albany tournament. Their lone loss was in straight sets to state-ranked Class 2A powerhouse Sauk Centre.

Later tonight I'll get football updates posted; they open the season tomorrow night in Bagley!