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Jimmie volleyball battles St. Cloud State, getting 'better and better'

JAMESTOWN — Prior to Sept. 26, 2025, St. Cloud State University head volleyball coach Chad Braegelmann had not been to Harold Newman Arena.

But he had heard things about the team that plays there.

"Jamestown's history scares me a lot." Braegelmann said. "They've had a lot of success up here in the NAIA world and Jon (Hegerle) is a volleyball legend so you know that he is going to have teams prepared and teams competing at a very, very high level."

The University of Jamestown womens volleyball team hosted Braegelmann and the Huskies on Friday evening. The Jimmies dropped 25-21, 25-23, 25-23 to the 15th ranked Huskies. The Jimmies will be back in action on Saturday, hosting Minnesota State-Mankato at 2 p.m.

While UJ's home opener was a loss, it was one of the closest conference matches the Jimmies have played so far this year.

"We are moving in the right direction," UJ head coach Jon Hegerle said. "There is something about this group. They love getting better and they love the challenge of it. You can see it ... they are not afraid to play these teams they are just looking forward every night. It's a lot of fun."

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In set No. 1, the Huskies jumped out to 4-0 start before a kill from Corbyn Menz escaped St. Cloud's defenses and put the Jimmies on the board.

Composure on defense helped the Jimmies get within two of the game leaders 8-6, but St. Cloud found its rhythm and won seven of the next nine points to make it 15-8 Huskies.

The Jimmies didn't give up.

Greta Wise gave the Jimmies the sideout out of a timeout with a smash in the middle. On the next serve, Lily Bertsch delivered an ace which was followed by a Charlotte Lempka kill to make it 15-11 St. Cloud State.

A deep push by Bertsch and two more kills from Wise and Lempka completed the 6-0 run and made it 15-13 St. Cloud State.

The Jimmies managed to pull ahead 17-16 but the Huskies came back and scored eight of the next 12 to bring up game point. The Jimmies held the visitors on game point with a kill from Corbyn Menz but a tip to the outside sealed the deal.

Through consistent defense, tough serving and dynamic attacking, the Jimmies established a 11-8 lead over the visitors in set No. 2. The three-point lead was enough for Braegelmann to call a timeout and talk things over with his crew of flustered athletes.

Following the timeout, the Huskies went on a 13-6 run to put them up 21-17 but the Jimmies clapped back with a 6-2 run to tie the affair at 23. A kill and an attack error on the Jimmies finished off the second set for the Huskies.

"Defensively they are good," Braegelmann said of the Jimmies. "They dug balls — the serving tonight was the difference for them. They served us so tough that they got us out of system, then they put up a good block then they had us swinging uncomfortably. That was the biggest thing they did tonight."

Set No. 3 was just as entertaining as the first two with multiple back and forths and several lead changes. Braegelmann said the Huskies put up a couple of big swings late which helped his team get the win.

"It was fun, it was great energy, their women played really hard, they served the snot out of the ball, they really beat us up bad in the serve-and-pass game so that was frustrating on our end ... it came down to two or three points in the second and third sets," Braegelmann said. "I don't want to play them again in October."

The fact that other teams already don't want to play UJ is a testament to Hegerle's coaching and the Jimmies' buy-in.

"The first step is learning how to compete in this league and the second step is learning how to win," Hegerle said. "We're learning how to compete — you can see that. I expect that we are going to compete better and better every match and tonight we certainly saw that.

"We're pretty resilient and we're pretty gritty and those are good characteristics as a sports team," he said.

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St. Cloud State 3, University of Jamestown 0

SCS 25 25 25

UJ 21 23 23

SCS — Kills: Ella Thompson 15, Shelby Kimm 9, Emery Thury 6. Assists: Braya LaPlant 31. Digs: Kimm 13, Laurin Hamann 11, Thury 6. Aces: Sam Zimmerman 1, LaPlant 1, Hamann 1. Blocks: Emilie Planert 3, LaPlant 3.

UJ — Kills: Corbyn Menz 7, Greta Wise 7, Charlotte Lempka 6, Ava Mueller 6, Addison Brooke 4, Addison Ertz 3, Lily Bertsch 2, Momoka Minamiya 1. Assists: Lily Bertsch 14, Ava Bertsch 6, Minamiya 5, Wise 1, Menz 1, Ertz 1. Digs: Menz 9, L. Bertsch 7, Minamiya 7, Wise 3, Mueller 3, Mia Minsz 3, A. Bertsch 3, Ertz 1. Aces: L. Bertsch 5, Minamiya 2. Blocks: Brooke 4, Menz 2, Mueller 2, Lempka 1.

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