Step VI: Jaguar volleyball takes down No. 2-ranked Falcons! (*UPDATES)

At face value, the sport of volleyball is relatively simple: serve well and put the ball into play, get touches at the net to slow the opponent's attack, have back row players ready to sacrifice themselves in the name of making the pass - and - last but not least, have just the right setter/hitter action that racks up offense.

If all those things describe your team, good things come your way on the volleyball court!

Tonight, in the Class 1A state semifinals, all those items on the list can be checked to the "affirmative" as the underdog B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team continued their improbable run in the winner's bracket of the state tournament with a 3-2 win against Fillmore Central. The win at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul lands the team in the program's first-ever state championship match since the pairing of Brooten and Belgrade-Elrosa's athletic programs in 1988.

Fillmore Central, a perennial power in Minnesota's small school volleyball scene, was ranked No. 2 in the final Class 1A Volleyball Coaches Association poll. They are also the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Their high school in Harmony is just 5 miles north of the Iowa border. Just east of them sits Mabel-Canton, another small-school state power who beat the Jaguars in the third-place match at state in 2022.

In tonight's wild affair in St. Paul...
After trailing 7-5 in game five, the Jaguars (22-8 overall) put the hammer down and won the whole thing with a 15-10 win that was fueled by a 5-0 run in the middle of the set. The Falcons (26-7) fall into the third-place match, and they will face No. 4-seeded Sacred Heart of East Grand Forks at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Against Fillmore Central, the Jaguars had a net negative hitting percentage of 4.2 percent in a rough game three, but they rebounded with 16.7 percent hitting in game four to force the tiebreaking set.

Strong 22.2 percent hitting in game five made the difference, and the Falcons faded down the stretch in a match that lasted approximately 1 hour, 49 minutes. The meat-grinder fifth set lasted about 20 seconds shy of 15 minutes.

Here's a video recorded after the match tonight:


In the wild, topsy-turvy game five today:
Trailing 7-5, the Jaguars got a huge boost when the Falcons had a costly service error. Jaylee Jensen and Laken Anderson had an assisted block that tied it at 7-7. Jensen's kill put the Jaguars in front 8-7, and McKinley Haider got an ace serve to make it 9-7. Fillmore Central's attack error helped the momentum shift clearly towards the Jaguars with a 10-7 score.

Later, with B-B-E nursing a 10-9 lead in the race to 15, the Jaguars came alive with a kill by Jaylee Jensen and then back-to-back kills by Teagan Dingmann for a 13-10 lead.

Fillmore Central's 6'2" junior middle hitter, Madilyn Zwart, gave the Jaguars trouble all night. She finished with 18 kills, but the match ended on back-to-back hitting errors by Zwart, which resulted in B-B-E's final 2 points in the fifth set. I honestly feel for her, as that sequence will haunt her in the offseason. As good as she is, I think it's a safe bet she will use that as motivation going into her senior year.

In game four, facing the chance it would end as a four-set loss and trailing 17-15, the Jaguars pulled it together and rattled off 10 straight points to stun the Falcons and their loud, supportive fans.

A few stats numbers:
Overall, the Jaguars had 14.8 percent hitting across all five sets with 40 total kills on 142 attacks. There was nothing flashy about B-B-E's attack. It was blue-collar the whole night. B-B-E's front line stats speak volumes: Teagan Dingmann had 11 kills on 31.8 percent hitting, Macey Roering and Jaylee Jensen each had 10 kills, and Laken Anderson put down 8 kills.

Defensively, the Jaguars racked up 8 solo blocks, 55 digs and were 73-of-77 on serve receive.

Fillmore Central's Achilles heel throughout the entire match was seen at the service line: 15 service errors on 94 attempts for 84 percent. They managed 5 ace serves, but their serving misses were daggers at times. Meanwhile, the Jaguars had 5 service errors on 98 serve attempts (94.9%) with 5 aces.

Fillmore Central, just like the Jaguars, has 3 seniors on the roster. It's a safe bet they'll be a state contender in 2027 and will remember this loss in the offseason.

NEXT: and this is a big one! Next is the state championship match at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 14 in Saint Paul. The opponent will be No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Minneota (31-4). The Vikings demolished Sacred Heart 25-16, 25-17, 25-10 to land a spot in the state championship for the second time in three seasons. They were runners-up in 2024 to Mayer Lutheran, missed out on state in 2023 but were state champions in 2022. In 2022, Minneota won 3-2 against Mayer Lutheran in the state finals.

Coming out of the COVID pandemic, the Vikings blazed their way to the 2021 state championship, but Mayer Lutheran won that match by a 3-0 sweep.

In today's semifinal, the Vikings held Sacred Heart (30-4) to just 4.1 percent hitting, while the Vikings had 25.5 percent hitting and a balanced attack (five Minneota players had 5 or more kills). At the service line, Minneota had 7 ace serves with 4 missed serves on 73 attempts. Sacred Heart was able to serve the ball just 45 times, and they had just one ace serve. Minneota's roster features 4 seniors and 7 juniors, so their makeup by class is similar to the Jaguars.

In the post-match press conference, first-year head coach Holly Breitbach admitted she was still short of breath with her heart going "a million miles an hour" after guiding her team through the barn-burner five-setter. She gave high praise to her team and how they "played their hearts out again" as they've taken the mantle of giant-slayers in the tournament.

"Kudos to Fillmore Central. They are a fabulous team. We put the pieces together today, and we had so much ammunition to counter what they did."

In the Class 2A volleyball tournament today:
For our neighbors to the northwest and south, Minnewaska Area and New London-Spicer both ran into trouble in the Class 2A semifinals today. Both of them lost in 3-0 sweeps, and they face eachother in the third-place match tomorrow.

You can read about the State Quarterfinals post-match press conference by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: BBEStateQuarterfinals2026.