Step VI: Jaguars suffer through difficult battle vs. defending state champions (UPDATES)

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team was on fire for 1 1/2 sets, but the defending state champion Mayer Lutheran Crusaders found a badly needed gear and rallied to take a 3-1 win in today's state semifinals.

In game one, the Jaguars stuck right with the vaunted Crusaders and had the top seed reeling in the early stages after Kacey Fischer dropped back-to-back ace serves for a 9-4 lead. While Mayer Lutheran kept pace with the Jaguars throughout that set, they never truly threatened the underdogs. B-B-E won 25-17 and finished the set with incredible 42.4 percent hitting, while Mayer Lutheran's figure was 18.9 percent.

Here's a video from later in game one today:


That video begins with the Jaguars holding an 18-14 lead.

In game two, with the Crusaders trailing 9-5, Mayer Lutheran head coach Joelle Grimsley called a timeout to rally her team. In the back of her mind, she felt they were in trouble. They had to adjust what was happening in the back row. Coach Grimsley told her players that they were getting out-hustled in a bad way. What followed was a night-and-day difference. The Crusaders rallied for a 14-0 run to take firm control of the game. After the Jaguars fell behind 19-9, they played even to the end in a 25-14 loss.

Mayer Lutheran (26-7) followed that with 25-11, 25-18 wins to advance to the state finals for the fifth straight year.

During the postmatch media interviews, Coach Grimsley pointed out that it took her three straight timeouts to deliver her "getting out-hustled" message to sink in. Up to that point, the Jaguars were playing superior volleyball.

I'm still processing the loss, my notes and some short video clips. It was tough to see the Jaguars go down today. They fought like crazy, but it just wasn't breaking their way when we needed it to.

Some light match statistics:
Just as what happened to North Woods in the quarterfinals, Mayer Lutheran had a big advantage in hitting efficiency: 26.4 percent to B-B-E's 12.7 percent. Across games 2 and 3, B-B-E had a total of 14 kills, while the Crusaders had 34 kills.

The Jaguars are now 25-7 overall, and they play at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, for third place back at Grand Casino Arena. The opponent will be Ada-Borup West. The Cougars fell 3-1 to Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the other state semifinal this afternoon. Game scores were 25-12, 25-17, 21-25, 25-13.

Let's go back to game 1 yesterday in the quarterfinals...


In their match today, Cleveland made quick work of ending North Woods' season in a 3-0 sweep.

How about a throwback to 15 years ago! Yes, that is right...here's action from the state tournament in 2010!

This is the start of the consolation semifinals against Cherry...


The Jaguars pulled off an incredible 27-25 win in game two against Cherry after they trailed 24-21. A sweep over Cherry advanced them to the consolation championship, where they lost to Win-E-Mac to finish in 6th place.

FUN FACT! the setter on that 2010 state tournament team was Julie Hieserich (now Schoenberg)...Julie's daughter joined with current junior middle hitter Teagan Dingmann to win the marshmellow challenge during Wednesday's elementary pep fest. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!!