Men’s Volleyball falls to No. 11 Jamestown

The Jamestown Jimmies showed why they’re the No. 11-ranked men’s volleyball team in the NAIA.

 

Led by Oguzhan Oguz’s 21 kills and a devastating .464 team hitting percentage Jamestown defeated Kansas Wesleyan 3-0 Saturday morning inside Mabee Arena.

 

The Coyotes fell to 5-10 on the season, 2-5 in Great Plains Athletic Conference play, while Jamestown remained unbeaten at 10-0 and 6-0.

 

As they did Friday night during their loss to Dordt in Mabee Arena the Coyotes battled Jamestown on nearly even terms in the first set. Two consecutive points narrowed the deficit to 21-20 but the Jimmies scored the next three points for a 24-21 lead. A Viet Nguyen (SO/Wichita, Kan.) kill got KWU within 24-21 but Jamestown closed it out on a kill by Caylor Cox.

 

Jamestown took control in the second set early-on racing to a 12-2 lead. Wesleyan got as close as eight four times, the last at 18-10.

 

Jamestown led 8-2 at the start of the third set but the Coyotes hung tough and got within 12-7 on a service error. The Jimmies pulled away from there scoring the next seven points and 14 of the final 18.

 

Oguz, a 6-foot-8 freshman from Turkey, posted his 21 kills on a .671 hitting percentage.

 

KWU coach Dustin Sahlmann said his team is going through growing pains.

 

“It goes to the youth of our roster and how inexperienced we are,” he said. “We don’t know how to sustain that focus and intensity when something doesn’t go well. It’s maturing and mentality.”

 

Sahlmann said his team has shown it can compete at a high level.

 

“Friday night for example we prepared and we talked about ‘this is the gameplan we need to follow.'” He said. “We did it in set one and had leads for the majority of that set but we couldn’t close it out and we just folded. The ability is there, it’s maturity and figuring out how to do it over a long period of time.”

 

KWU had a .119 hitting percentage against Jamestown. Nguyen had a monstrous day finishing with 12 kills and a .524 percentage. Marcus Taylor had 19 assists while Jeremy Lapeze (FR/Burbank, Calif.) and Colin Lindo (JR/Las Vegas, Nev.) had three digs apiece.

 

The Coyotes play Missouri Baptist and University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy-St. Louis on Tuesday in St. Louis in their next action.