Volleyball is frequently a sport of runs and Thursday night's match between the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Bulldogs and Nicollet Raiders proved that to the extreme. With each team holding leads of at least nine points in the first two sets, a thrilling third set victory powered the Bulldogs to a 3-1 (25-17, 20-25, 30-28, 25-18) win.
With the victory, JWP improves to a record of 7-7 on the season.
The night couldn't have started much better for JWP with the squad building a 7-1 lead to force a Nicollet timeout before extending the lead to as much as 14-3. The Raiders made some inroads, but the deficit proved too much to overcome with the Bulldogs taking the first set 25-17.
The second set played out completely opposite as Nicollet's defense ratcheted up and started making effort plays that they hadn't been getting to in the first. The Raiders built a 19-10 lead and similar to the first set, the Bulldogs made a late push that included a monster block from Presley James as well as a service ace, but Nicollet tied the match at 1-1 by winning 25-20.
In the third set, JWP jumped out to a 12-5 lead with Brielle Bure recording three consecutive service aces. Nicollet responded with an 8-1 run that featured a trio of aces as well, eventually taking a 17-15 lead to force a Bulldog timeout.
After trading a few points, Lilly Strauss led a JWP 7-0 run which included a three more service aces to give the Bulldogs a 23-19 lead. After three straight points from Nicollet, JWP reached set point thanks to a block at the net from Claire Walz and Aubrey Weedman, but the Raiders survived with four more points in a row to put the Bulldogs behind 25-24.
Nicollet would lose this set point as well as another after a serve out of bounds from JWP, but this time the Bulldogs put Nicollet on notice two more times before finally closing out the victory 30-28 thanks to some incredible defensive scrambles from players like Weedman, Walz and Navaeh Weimert.
After the third set, the Raiders clearly had the wind taken out of their sails, and JWP took care of business, securing the overall victory with a 25-18 win.
The Bulldogs will return to Nicollet Saturday morning when they make the trip to compete in the Nicollet H.S. Invite. They are scheduled to compete against Martin Luther/GHEC/Truman at 9 a.m., before facing Sleepy Eye at 11 a.m.
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