4 days Ago By Skyler Jackson
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – A historic season from the Minnesota West Community and Technical College volleyball team came to an end Saturday in nationals. The Lady Jays ended the season with a 35-5 record and as the runner-up in the NJCAA Division III Volleyball Championship. Dallas Eastfield defeated Minnesota West 3-0 for the championship, handing the Jays their first loss in over a month and a half.
ADVERTISEMENT It is Eastfield’s third title in program history and second in a row. They’ve only lost once in the last two seasons combined. But the No.
2 seeded Lady Jays still impressed in their D3 Tournament debut, sweeping their first three matches of the three-day tournament en route to the championship match. After leading their team for the last two seasons and to its first national tournament, sophomore duo Ella Hesse and Lexi Schreurs were named to the all-tournament team. Hesse hit 32 kills, had 26 digs and added three blocks and a couple of serve aces in the tournament while Schreurs passed for 132 assists with 37 digs and three aces.
Other Lady Jays who stood out throughout the tournament were freshman outside hitters Sadie Krahling and Claire Bohlen. Krahling hit 25 kills with 24 digs and nine total blocks, including five against Dallas North Lake in the quarterfinals. Bohlen finished with 30 kills, 18 digs and two blocks in the four matches.
Libero Kadyn Paulson led the team in the tourney with 40 digs. The No. 1-ranked Harvester Bees were too much for the No.
2 Lady Jays as they cruised to the victory by scores of 25-16, 25-9, 25-13. Eastfield’s Carli Banks started the match with back-to-back kills as the Harvester Bees jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set. Then a service error and two attacking errors give the Lady Jays three-straight points.
But the Bees immediately won the next six points for an 11-3 advantage after three more kills and three Minnesota West attack errors. ADVERTISEMENT The closest Minnesota West got after that was to within five points at 14-9 thanks to a stretch led by two Bohlen kills. The Bees later went back up nine at 18-9 capped off by back-to-back aces.
The rest of the points went back and forth as the Lady Jays couldn’t cut much into Eastfield’s lead. A kill gave the Harvester Bees the first set. In a lopsided second set, the Bees showed why they were the defending national champs and top-ranked team in the nation.
Their defense kept them in points and their attacking emphatically put them away. Their second-set hitting percentage was .514 with 21 kills and only three errors.
Nine of those kills came in the first 13 points as Eastfield opened a 10-3 lead. Minnesota West briefly cut that deficit to four points before the Harvester Bees won the next eight points in a row. The Lady Jays won just three more points as Eastfield easily closed out a 2-0 lead.
Dallas Eastfield grabbed an early third-set lead, but the Jays kept it close through the early points. But the Bees again went on a run, claiming eight of the next 10 points to grab an eight-point lead at 12-4. West couldn’t draw closer than seven points after that and an 8-1 Eastfield run to again go ahead 24-9.
A few errors helped the Jays save four match points, but the Harvester Bees claimed the national championship on a Lady Jays service error. Hesse and Bohlen, along with Ally Nelson and Abby Loosbrock led Minnesota West with four kills each. Krahling and Kylee Larsen each added two kills.
Leading in digs was Schreurs at 11 with 19 set assists. Paulson added seven digs and Krahling and Bohlen had five each. Brently Walker led Eastfield in kills with 11 while tournament MVP Azoria Davis added 10 along with a team-leading 10 digs.
Setter Taryn Dorion passed for 41 assists. ADVERTISEMENT Final Tournament Results Champion: Dallas Eastfield Runner-up: Minnesota West 3rd Place: DuPage 4th Place: Century 5th Place: Dallas North Lake 6th Place: Sandhills ADVERTISEMENT 7th Place: Finger Lakes 8th Place: Owens 9th Place: Butler County 10th Place: Rochester.
