Staff photo by Jake Olson Londyn Bowers pushes a ball over the net after recovering from a Sleepy Eye serve on Thursday night at Granada Huntley East Chain High School.

GRANADA – On the same night she earned her 1,000th career dig for the Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther volleyball program, Londyn Bowers powered the Jaguars over Sleepy Eye on Thursday.

In a back-and-forth contest that saw both teams trade blows, it was the senior-led Jaguars who got the last laugh, topping the Storm in five sets. The Jaguars won 25-22, 22-25, 25-10, 14-25, 16-14.

“We played really well,” GHEC/T/ML head coach TJ Williams said after the game. “Obviously, there are some things we can work on. I think the biggest thing is just talking and being loud, cause if the gym is loud, you have to be louder than everyone in the gym. But overall, I will take that.”

Both opponents were at a disadvantage before the first ball was hit over the net. After a malfunction with the air conditioning system the night before, the GHEC High School gymnasium was riddled with humidity.

This caused both sides of the court to become extremely slippery as the match progressed.

“Yesterday it was cold in here and the AC was running,” Williams said. “The humidity kicked in here, and it definitely played a big effect on this game. I’m glad both teams got through without anybody getting hurt.”

Despite many stoppages of play and slips on the hardwood, the contest continued.

The first set of the evening had both teams feel each other out, going point-for-point without either team gaining much of a lead.

Powered by kills from Bowers, Addison Nowicki and Keira Benck, the Jaguars jumped to a 13-9 advantage.

Despite Bowers spiking a ball to finish off a 3-point Jaguar swing that extended the lead to 19-16, Sleepy Eye bounced back with 4 consecutive points, taking the advantage over GHEC/T/ML for the first time that set since it was 2-1.

As the score dangled 23-22, with the advantage going to the Jaguars, Bowers showed her spectacular athleticism after diving for a dig and spiking the ball with a kill all in one rally, charging up the home crowd to an eventual 25-22 victory.

Unable to sustain the momentum, the Jaguars fell early in set two, 5-0, after a handful of errors.

Nowicki started the rally for GHEC/T/ML, however. After bumping the ball across the net for a kill that made the set 5-2, the Jaguars coasted on a 15-6 run that was riddled with kills from Bowers.

However, like much of the evening, Sleepy Eye refused to quit. Battling back to make it a 17-16 set score, the Storm scored 9 points to the Jaguars’ 5, ultimately taking the victory 25-22.

“It would be nice to not have to start down, and when you are up, stay up,” Williams said. “But that’s volleyball. It’s a game of errors, and things go either direction pretty quickly.”

Williams’ unit breezed through set three with a lopsided score of 25-10, using 11 consecutive serve points from Willow Singleton to power the victory.

The momentum was short-lived for the Jaguars.

With a chance to seal the match entirely, Sleepy Eye refused to fall yet again in Set 4. Going on runs of 6 and 9 points, the Indians forced a fifth and final set with a 25-14 victory to extend the night.

Before the game-deciding set began, Williams emphasized a sense of urgency for every action his players took going forward, using every opportunity they got to hopefully strike an advantage.

“What we have been talking about is doing everything with a purpose on the court,” Williams said. “All the movements, all the voices, all that stuff, do it with a purpose. Whether it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, at least give it all you got, especially when you are right there at the end.”

Set 5 was similar to set one: a grudge match.

Both teams gritted it out after alternating points and using runs of their own to build temporary leads.

The Storm took the upper hand late in the set, holding onto a 14-11 cushion. With the match point on the horizon, Williams used a timeout to rally the troops.

Bowers came out of the huddle with a will to win, individually scoring 3 of the Jaguars’ next 5 points and using her devastating spike to help complete the comeback.

“That’s that senior leadership right there,” Williams said. “When the game’s on the line, you can put it on her shoulders and she will take care of it.”

Keira Benck led the team with 35 assists on the evening. Bowers recorded 22 kills and 28 digs.