Jimmies men's volleyball swept by Vanguard in NAIA pool play
Apr. 11—WEST DES MOINES, Iowa. — The University of Jamestown had 10 attack errors in the first set and it cost them as they got swept (25-22, 25-21, 25-16) to Vanguard University on Tuesday, April 11, at the MidAmerican Energy Company RecPlex.
The Jimmies sprinted out to a 7-2 lead and were able to stretch it out to 15-10 before the Lions went on a 6-1 run to tie the first set up at 16, drawing a Jimmies timeout. Out of the timeout, the Jimmies got a kill to take a 17-16 lead but it did little to stop the Lions' momentum as they took their first lead at 19-18 part of a run that saw them win the first set 25-22. Out of the Lions' final nine points, six were off of Jimmies errors. Whereas the Lions had nine total errors in the first set.
"We started out pretty strong," Jimmies head coach Travers Cox said. "We served well, we blocked pretty well. We were hitting pretty well that first set. We got them off balance early in that first set, it was working really well for us. They actually played a little bit better. They got us out of system, hit some pretty good serves themselves, came up with some big plays and we could never get the momentum back. We got down by a couple points and we kept siding out, siding out, siding out but when we're down you gotta stop them from scoring points or you can't get back in the game."
The start of the second set was much more competitive as the teams were tied at five early on and the Jimmies took their last lead of the set at 9-8. The Lions responded with a run to take a 15-12 lead and never relinquished the lead as the closest the Jimmies got was within one on multiple occasions before the Lions won the set 25-21.
The early part of the third set was tight with the Lions (17-5) taking an early 9-7 lead. They were able to stretch it out from there to 18-11, drawing a Jimmies (21-4) timeout. Out of the timeout, the Jimmies' Caylor Cox got a kill to cut the deficit to 18-12. The Jimmies were not able to get any closer as their last kill came from Oguzhan Oguz to cut the deficit to 24-16. Oguz finished the match with a match-high 14 kills.
The match saw the Lions' Tanner Woods play against his former team for the first time since transferring away from the Jimmies and he finished with two kills, one assist and one ace.
The Jimmies return to the court at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, when they face Grand View University.
UJ 0, VU 3
UJ: 22 21 16 — 0
VU: 25 25 25 — 3
Kills leaders:
UJ: Oguzhan Oguz 14, Downey Huynh 6, Caylor Cox 6, Tysen Myers 4, Ever Cancel 4
VU: Kyle Anema 12, Cody Watts 6, Valesis Vaisuai 5
Assists leaders:
UJ: Derek Correa 29, Adam Lopata 3
VU: Ryan Smith 26, Anema 3, Anderson 3, Tanner Woods 1, Vaisuai 1
Aces leaders:
UJ: Correa 1, Oguz 1
VU: Anema 3, Glen Linden 2, Smith 1, Woods 1, Will Anderson 1
