Jimmies men's volleyball falls in four sets against The Master's
May 2—CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. — The No. 8-seeded University of Jamestown men's volleyball team's season came to an end with a four-set loss to No. 1-seeded The Master's University (19-25, 25-20, 27-29, 28-25) on Thursday, May 2, at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse in the NAIA Men's Volleyball Championships.
"I expected it to be even harder than that and it was," Jimmies head coachTravers Cox said. "Master's is tough, extremely tough, they're ranked number one for a reason."
The first set was incredibly competitive as the teams were tied at 10 before the Jimmies (22-2) took a 16-15 lead, drawing a Mustangs timeout. Out of the stoppage, the Mustangs went on a 10-3 run to get the 25-19 first-set win.
The Jimmies sprinted out of the gates in the second set with a quick 7-2 lead. Despite the Mustangs (25-2) fighting back to cut the deficit to 15-13, the Jimmies were able to pull away and get the 25-20 second-set win.
The third set continued to be a war with 16 ties and five lead changes. The Mustangs took a 17-14 lead and were able to stretch it to 20-17 before the Jimmies fought back and took the lead at 26-25, drawing a timeout from the Mustangs. The Mustangs responded to the stoppage in a big way, finishing the set with a run to get the 29-27 third-set win.
The Jimmies struggled in the fourth set as after the match was tied at eight, the Mustangs went on a run to take a 19-12 lead, drawing a Jimmies timeout. The stoppage worked in the Jimmies' favor as they were able to cut it to 21-15, drawing a Mustangs timeout. That stoppage worked in the No. 1-ranked Mustangs' favor, though, as they were able to finish the match on a 4-3 run to get a 25-18 fourth-set win.
The Jimmies were sunk by their errors in this match with 26 attack errors and 14 service errors. The Mustangs had 23 attack errors, 21 service errors and one blocking error, but they had 54 kills compared to the Jimmies' 38.
After the match, Cox kept his team positive, talking about the achievements they had this season.
"I thanked them all for an incredible season," he said. "When we took our team picture at the end, I said that this is the best that the University of Jamestown has done at the national tournament in regards to the matches we've had. In the past, we've won one match and then we lost in three in the second match. This year, we won a match and lost in four, so it's improvements."
UJ 1, TMC 3
UJ: 19 25 27 18 — 1
TMC: 25 20 29 25 — 3
