Jaguars improve to 2-0 conference mark (VIDEOS)

For the second time in their trip through the Central Minnesota Conference schedule this year, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep as they easily handled Kimball Area on the home floor tonight. Game scores were deceiving from my view, but they were as follows: 25-23, 25-21, 25-17.

B-B-E improves to 10-2 overall with the win, while the Cubs fall to 6-7 overall (1-1 CMC). Kimball had swept Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on their home floor one week ago.

NEXT: the Jaguars travel north to Crosby-Ironton in beautiful Crow Wing County for a tournament on Saturday. I don't have an official list, but by my count of their school's athletic schedule, it appears that this tournament has at least 15 teams.

I have a few "shout outs" to give tonight from some of my observations this week...but I'm going to save that for a sports podcast to be recorded later tonight.

How tonight's CMC match played out...
Game one tonight featured a fierce battle from start to finish. Once the Jaguars gained their footing and built slim three-point leads, the Cubs came right back to make it close down the stretch.

Here's a video from early in game one tonight:


The visiting Cubs came out firing and played remarkably well in the early stages of game one. Two of the first three points scored were on a Kimball Area kill and an ace block. The Jaguars took a while to settle in while tightening their blocks and getting some slack out of their passes. The Cubs got three more kills after trailing 5-4 and took leads of 8-5, 9-6 and 10-7. It's at that point where you can see what happened next in the video above. Once the Cubs had an 8-5 lead after a kill, they had the serve but then hit long for a side out. The Cubs got another kill to go up 9-6, but after they served, they hit long once again. This played out one more time, with Kimball getting a kill for a 10-7 lead. On the next serve, the Cubs served long for a side out, and Abigail Lien went to the service line for the Jaguars. This is where I feel they got the clutch engaged, got it into gear and started playing their style of volleyball. Kadynce Haider and Kenna Lieser teamed up for an ace block, and then the Cubs hit long to tie it at 10-10. Lien served for the third straight time, and this time she knocked over an ace serve to put the Jaguars ahead for the first time of the night with an 11-10 score. Kacey Fischer followed with a thunderous kill down the left side, and at this point the Cubs called for a timeout trailing 12-10.

Here's a video showing how game one ended tonight:


I had a small error in my play-by-play. The action was fast and furious for numerous rallies tonight, so I will forgive myself for the mistake. This was very exciting volleyball! For B-B-E's 24th point, it was an ace attack (a kill) from Kamie Fischer that put them ahead 24-22...not a block. I saw that on the review of the video. The Cubs then mishandled their return of a Teagan Dingmann attack to give the game to the Jaguars.

I didn't hear what Coach Borgerding said to her team between games one and two, but it had to have been good as the Jaguars came out locked and loaded while firing out to a 12-5 lead in game two. This lead grew to 17-8, and the rotation was altered somewhat with fresh players. The Jaguars continued to keep the pressure on with a kill by Kacey Fischer and an ace serve from Ava Deters. Teagan Dingmann then had an ace block to make it 20-10. The Cubs fought back and went on a small rally to close it to a 21-16 score. Dingmann had a kill for a side out, but the Cubs then cut it down to 22-18. The Jaguars scored the needed points with a kill from Kacey Fischer plus a Kimball hitting error and then a net violation to end the set in favor of the Jaguars 25-21.

B-B-E came out like gangbusters in game three and led 6-0 to force the Cubs into an early timeout. The Cubs trailed 9-4 before the Jaguars had a 4-0 run. Later in the third set, after the Jaguars built an 18-6 lead, the Cubs cut the deficit in half to trail 23-17. The Jaguars concluded the night on a high note with a 25-17 win to finish out the sweep.

I've got more to post here, but it may take a while before I get to it...this has a busy night and continues to be a busy night even as we approach 10 p.m.! I am catching up a little bit on Royalton volleyball. They are 10-2 overall after earning a big 3-2 win against Maple Lake at Maple Lake. What a crazy atmosphere that had to have been! The Royals travel to Walker-Hackensack-Akeley high school on Saturday, where we will learn much more about just how good they are. As it appears, they have emerged as one of the top teams in the CMC so far. The conference schedule features just 7 matches year after year, so there is little room for error for teams who want to win a share of the CMC title.

The Royals are certainly on the rise just two seasons after going 4-24 overall. Last year, they went above .500 in the CMC (4-3 overall) to take third place alone. They went 15-12 overall before they lost in an upset to visiting Holdingford by a 3-1 margin in the Section 6AA opener. On October 5, 2023, the Huskers lost 3-1 in Royalton during their CMC match.

On an unrelated note...
Ticket sales for the Hall of Fame banquet are underway. You can read more about that from either looking at page one in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper or by clicking on the following link: https://shorturl.at/ob74q. That web article features a video from the last HOF night at B-B-E.

CMC volleyball scores on September 12:
Royalton 3, Maple Lake 2
Holdingford 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 2
Paynesville Area 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 0

Area volleyball scores on September 12:
Minnewaska Area 3, BOLD 0
#3 Minneota 3, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 2
#4 Willmar 3, #8 Rocori 2 (a big win for Willmar, as they improve to 8-3 overall and 5-0 in the Central Lakes Conference in this battle of Top 10 Class 3A teams)
Litchfield 3, Rockford Area 0
New London-Spicer 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1
Swanville 3, Upsala 0
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 3, Brandon-Evansville 0
Renville County West 3, Lac qui Parle Valley 0
MACCRAY 3, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 1
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 3, Benson 0
Rothsay 3, Ashby 1
West Central Area 3, Melrose Area 0
Parkers Prairie 3, Battle Lake 0
Henning 3, Verndale 0