ROCHESTER, Minn. – Jamestown Community College will be playing for seventh place after falling to No. 7 Harper College Friday afternoon, 3-1.
The Jayhawks (29-7) posted set scores of 18-25, 23-25, 25-22 and 25-11. The Hawks jumped out to a quick 15-5 over JCC, looking to make easy work. Jennah Starkweather and Megan Gominiak were able to stop the run with a block on an attack from Ashley Rothenberg. The Jayhawks were able to take advantage of four more errors committed by Harper to go along with two aces from Cameryn Hawkins to help make it 15-13. Harper was able to regain the momentum, going on an 8-2 run, making it 23-15. JCC was able to fight back with three more points before Harper closed out the set.
In the second set, the teams would battle back and forth, not gaining any ground. Gominiak drew the Jayhawks even at 8-8 with a kill. That would spark a 4-0 run to put JCC up 11-8. JCC grew their lead to as many as six points with a 20-14. The Hawks did not go away quietly as they closed the gap to trail by only two. Jenna Caskey got JCC's lead back to four with a service ace, making it 22-18. Harper flipped the script and closed the set out on a 7-1 run.
With the Jayhawks facing elimination, they knew that they had to win the next set to move onto the fifth-place match. The Hawks carried over the momentum from the first two sets, opening up to a 5-1 lead. The Jayhawks grabbed their first lead thanks to kills by Karleigh Haines and Gominiak along with a service ace from Caskey, making it 7-6. JCC was able to gain ground throughout the match but not able to pull away. The Jayhawks biggest lead came down the stretch, up 23-17. During the stretch, The Jayhawks got a kill from Gominiak and two kills from Caskey. Harper was crept back into the match, trailing 23-22. JCC took the set with back-to-back errors from the Hawks.
Caskey led the JCC offense with 12 kills while Haines added seven. Hawkins took care of the backcourt on defense, leading the team with 21 digs. Caskey had 16 digs with Haines and Maddy Russo adding 12 digs each. Russo also had 22 assists on the day.
The Jayhawks with play for seventh place tomorrow as they take on Jefferson Community College at 1 p.m. JCC is familiar with the Cannoneers, having played them twice before this season. JCC came out victorious in both matches.