Not Their Night: Blue Jays fall to Century in Four

Sep. 17—The Bismarck Century High School volleyball program has a long history of winning — and that history repeated itself Thursday night.

"There is a team that can beat them, and I think that it could be us, but tonight it wasn't us," Jamestown High School head coach Sara Hegerle said. "It's going to be tough to sleep tonight because of that but I do think somewhere this will play a role in helping us get better."

The Patriots defeated Jamestown 25-12, 25-11, 20-25, 25-8 to pull further ahead in the West Region volleyball standings. The Pats are 5-0 in conference play and 12-0 overall while the Blue Jays, the West's No. 3 team, sit at 4-1 and 10-2.

Coming into Thursday's match, Hegerle was optimistic that her 2021 Blue Jay squad could make a run at the defending Class A state champs. The Blue Jays have been steady and consistent from day one, not making many attacking errors and playing mentally tough. Jamestown went 6-1 in matches and 17-4 in sets at Century's home invite back in August.

Jamestown held steady with the visiting rivals, coming within one to make it 6-5 in the opening set. After Claire Bauman smashed home the Pats' fifth point in a row to pull ahead 10-5, Hegerle called the first timeout of the game. The Patriots took advantage of the Jays' weaker defensive game, with Bauman, Macy Fridgen and Logan Nissley combining for 28 kills.

"They have a tradition of winning," Hegerle said. "They've earned it, they are a good team. I feel like we didn't serve-receive tough. We lost a couple of points and were afraid of making mistakes."

An out-of-rotation call on the Jays and a few dropped balls in the midcourt put some more wind in Century's sails and the Patriots soon found themselves up 24-10. The Jays kept the ball in play for a few more points but a deep push to the corner got away from libero Jenna Fischer and the Pats' sealed set No. 1 25-12

Century picked on the rattled Blue Jay defenders, and some missed passes helped build a 5-0 Century lead to begin the second. Before Bernadette Newman put the Jays on the board with a powerhouse swing on the outside, the Jays were getting burned on the block and launching some balls out of bounds.

The Patriots' lead grew to 11, up 17-6 when Nabwe smashed home a kill on the right side. Unfortunately for the Jays, those momentum-giving moments were far and few between. Nabwe was the Jays' kill leader with nine while Newman and Hunter Petersen each added eight to the stat books.

The Patriots took the second 25-11.

But the Jays are not anything if not scrappy defensively.

"Jamestown is always a really scrappy team and that gets frustrating when you can't find the floor," Century head coach Jamie Zastoupil said. "They put up a huge block and Annie hangs for so long and her reach is so high that we really have to work around her and that's challenging .. we don't come across that a lot.

Tied at 6-6 in the third set, Jamestown tallied an error, giving the Patriots some momentum back. The Pats rattled off an 8-1 run to pull ahead 13-7. Jamestown had some trouble recovering defensively on tipped shots and missed a few opportunities defensively but a power slam from Nabwe gave the Jays back their mojo.

Nabwe's kill capped off a Blue Jay scoring run to help the Jays pull back within two of the game leaders and while Century was able to pull ahead a couple more, Jamestown was locked in and focused. Aspyn Peterson patrolled the back row for the Jays, putting 12 balls into play, while libero Jenna Fischer kept 10 balls alive.

Nabwe continued to own the middle, tipping and smashing home every ball that came her way. A few mental mistakes by the Patriots put the Jays up 24-20. The senior middle ended it with a shot to a defensive hold.

"We got a little bit of a spark from our serving," Hegerle said. "Jada (Walter) went back there and she was serving tough. We found a little crack in their foundation and started to go after it. They started letting balls drop and we got some weird points and that always gets the crowd going — so that was fun."

After a quick fourth set, Hegerle's attention turned toward Saturday and next Tuesday. The Jays are set to face Watford City Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and Bismarck High on the road next week. The Demons are currently the No. 2 team in the WDA standings at 4-0 and 9-2 overall

'Bismarck High is playing some really good volleyball right now," Hegerle said. "The road is not over — it's just taking a detour."

Bismarck Century 3, Jamestown 1

BC 25 25 20 25

JHS 12 11 25 8

BC — Kills: Fridgen 11, Nissley 9, Bauman 8, Abby Fletcher 6, Camryn Harter 5, Dylan Dennis 4, Halle Mattern 1. Assists: Fletcher 18, Delani Clarke 15. Digs: Clarke 14, Jaycie Clarke 14, Nissley 10, Autumn Ketterling 8, Mattern 7, Fridgen 7, Dennis 6, Fletcher 4, Harter 3, Bauman 1. Aces: Fridgen 4, Ketterling 1, Clarke 1, J. Clarke 1. Blocks: Fletcher 3, Nissley 2, Fridgen 2, Bauman 2.

JHS — Kills: Nabwe 9, Bernadette Newman 8, Hunter Petersen 8, Katie Falk 5, Haylie Hakanson 3, Katie Trumbauer 2. Assists: Trumbauer 17, Makenna Nold 4. Digs: Aspyn Peterson 12, Jenna Fischer 10, Trumbauer 5, Jada Walter 4, Nold 4, Newman 2, Falk 1. Aces: Nold 2, Walter 1, Fischer 1. Blocks: Trumbauer 2, Falk 1, Newman 1, Nabwe 1.

Records: Bismarck Century 12-0, 5-0 WDA; Jamestown 4-1, 10-2.