Dakota Wesleyan volleyball looks to play spoiler at No. 1 Jamestown in GPAC tournament
Nov. 10—In a season of firsts, the Dakota Wesleyan University volleyball team is hoping for more on Wednesday night.
The Tigers head north to face No. 1-ranked Jamestown for the second time in eight days, this time in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals. A win would send the Tigers to the GPAC tournament championship for the first time, which will be played on Nov. 13.
But as the Tigers have already learned this season, the 29-0 Jimmies are no joke.
The No. 15 Tigers are coming off a five-set thriller at the Christian Family Athletic Center, taking down Northwestern in the quarterfinals. DWU, who had just lost three of their last four matches to end the regular season, climbed out of a 2-1 set hole to advance to the semifinals.
"Winning that game was a huge morale-booster for us," DWU head coach Lindsay Wilber said. "It couldn't have gotten any closer, but when you have a 4 and 5 seed like that, I knew it wasn't going to be 3-0 like the first time we beat them. I knew it was going to be back and forth so it was huge for us to get a win and it was exciting."
Saturday's victory likely bolstered the Tigers' NAIA tournament resume. The selections for the 48-team tournament field will be made Nov. 15.
That was the third time Dakota Wesleyan had faced the Red Raiders and now they'll have their third crack at another formidable opponent.
The two teams have played twice already this season, with Jamestown winning in three sets both times. DWU battled closely with Jamestown in a pair of sets on Oct. 8, with the Jimmies winning by two points in each. Jamestown won each of the sets in the second meeting by eight points when the teams met earlier this month.
When asked what it will take to beat the best volleyball team in all of the NAIA, Wilber said the team needs to serve aggressively and play their game.
"Jamestown is good," Wilber said. "We're going to have to serve really aggressively. They're probably the best passing team in the country, and that's partly why they're No. 1 in the nation. They run a 6-2 so they have three hitters in the front row at all times. As blockers, when they're passing so well, it's hard to account for all of them and decide which one we want to shut down because if you shut one down, it seems like another one steps up. We just have to serve really aggressive, continue to play our game and continue to be aggressive."
Jamestown's scheme has not only slowed down every team they've played against but also slowed down DWU's Ady Dwight, who is seventh nationally in kills at 434 and and is 13th nationally in kills per set at 3.98. On average, Dwight earns 14 kills per match, but in the two matches against Jamestown, she's had 18 kills total. Dwight said the triple block that teams run against her can be very difficult, but she still wants to keep finding ways to still have an impact on the match.
"Jamestown is huge, they're just really big and sometimes a triple block is really hard to figure out so you have to be smart when you play against that," Dwight said. "I try to just run my routes and get those bigger hitters to follow me so it can open up more places for outsides and Mackenzie (Miller) on the right side. When they follow one player, it can open it up for the rest of the team."
Even if DWU doesn't win Wednesday, DWU and Wilber understand there is more volleyball to be played and expect to play in the NAIA women's volleyball tournament, which opens play on Nov. 20. Wilber said she wants to see more of a battle as the team is just 10 days away from the national stage.
"I hope that we can go up there and come out with a little better outcome than last time. Even if we don't win, I want us to battle a little bit more," Wilber said. "We'll do our best. I thought that we prepared last time pretty well, but they have a real advantage at home. They're just such a steady, veteran team. They have a beautiful arena, they have a lot of fans and they're just a different team at home in their element. We're going to have to travel four hours to get there, but we'll be ready to go."
