Zent gets 1,000th kill as Jimmies sweep DSU

• Katie Zent and Priscilla Frias

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Jamestown College senior Katie Zent, back left, watches her kill attempt get tipped by Dickinson State junior Priscilla Frias, front right, and junior Linaya Schroeder, front left, as Jamestown junior Sarah Becker, back right, watches the play during a nonconference volleyball match on Tuesday night at Scott Gymnasium.

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Katie Zent and her setters fell into a comfort zone early and there was little Dickinson State could do to slow them down.

Zent, a Jamestown College senior from Richardton, eclipsed 1,000 career kills as she spiked down 17 on the Blue Hawks and helped the Jimmies escape Scott Gymnasium with a 25-21, 31-29, 25-21 nonconference victory on Tuesday night.

“It seemed like everything went down tonight — stupid little roll shots and stuff,” said Zent, who has 1,006 kills in four seasons for the Jimmies. “I don’t know, it just kind of worked.”

Though the Jimmies (18-4) swept the Blue Hawks, it didn’t come easy.

DSU (3-15) held leads early in the first and third sets before Jamestown rallied. The teams went back and forth in the second set that seemed like it wouldn’t end.

“We’ve got to take advantage of situations,” DSU interim head coach Jennifer Hartman said. “When we’re up, we’ve got to keep rolling with it. We can’t let them back in.”

It took an 11-2 run in the first set to help Jamestown break free and establish a 17-12 lead.

DSU led by as much as seven, 16-9, in the second set before the Jimmies mounted a 10-1 rally — punctuated by three Zent kills — to take a 19-17 lead.

Zent had four kills in the first set and eight in the second. She got her 1,000th on a kill over the middle that tied the set at 26.

“Every team needs a warrior,” Jimmies head coach Jon Hegerle said. “She’s a warrior and she carried us through that first set and most of the way through the second set until everyone else got going.”

DSU quickly reclaimed a lead, 20-19, and the teams weren’t separated by more than a point until the very end when Jimmies senior Emilee Schutta ended a long rally — which the Blue Hawks extended with a pair of magnificent pancake digs — with a kill from the right side.

Sarah Becker was big for Jamestown in the back-and-forth final points, coming up with four of her 11 at the end of the set.

“We came out in a dogfight that second game,” Zent said. “That was good for us. To come in and have to play like that, it’s good experience.”

DSU seniors Ebony Sanders, Shaunda Dvorak and Sarah Zeibig did everything they could throughout the match, whether it was through smashing kills or stuff blocks, to keep their team fighting.

Sanders had 10 kills and a pair of block assists while Dvorak had six kills, two solo blocks and a block assist. Zeibig had seven kills. Junior setter Melissa Avila added six kills and 17 assists for the Blue Hawks.

DSU surrendered a 14-10 lead in the third set as Zent came up with two kills in a four-point run that put Jamestown back on course.

Later, the Jimmies used a 7-1 run to take a 23-18 lead and closed out the match after DSU put up a late fight.

Hartman, who is 1-6 as interim head coach since taking over Sept. 18 at Jamestown, said the Blue Hawks need to learn they can’t let up when they have leads.

“We’ve got to fight through the whole game and (have) a get-in-and-get-out type of mentality,” Hartman said. “But it’s getting better. They’re working so hard. Practice is where that happens. We’re going to work hard in practice this week and get that figured out.”

JC 25 31 25 — 3

DSU 19 29 21 — 0

Kills: JC, Katie Zent 17, Sarah Becker 11, Kaitlyn Rogalla 5, Alaina Brown 4, Emilee Schutta 3, Alex Hanson 2, Janna Johnson 2, Kelsey Deragisch 1. DSU, Ebony Sanders 10, Sarah Zeibig 7, Melissa Avila 6, Shaunda Dvorak 6, Linaya Schroeder 5, Priscilla Frias 2.

Blocks: JC, Rogalla 3, Brown 2, Zent 1. DSU, Dvorak 3, Frias 2, Sanders 2, Avila 1.

Aces: JC, Deragisch 2, Brown 1, Zent 1, Schultta 1, Katie Lee 1, Kaia Buck 1. DSU, Frias 1, Katelyn Christensen 1, Kelly O’Connor 1.

Digs: JC, Lee 33, Zent 15, Brown 11, Buck 8, Deragisch 7, Schutta 6, Johnson 3, Rogalla 2, Beth Segerholm 1, Becker 1. DSU, Chelsea Seibel 23, Christensen 12, Avila 6, O’Connor 6, Zeibig 5, Rebecca Johnson 3, Sanders 3, Schroeder 3, Frias 2.

Assists: JC, Deragisch 21, Lee 16. DSU, Avila 17, O’Connor 12.

Records: JC 18-4, DSU 3-15.

Tags: dsu blue hawks, blue hawks, katie zent, jamestown college jimmies, sports, volleyball