PAINESDALE — The Jeffers Jets continued their winning ways on Thursday with a three-set sweep of the Wakefield- Marenisco Cardinals. Scores were 25-5, 25-19, 25-23.

Interestingly, neither coach was very pleased in the way their teams played.

“Obviously, I am happy with the win, but we need to play at a much higher intensity,” stated Rachel Sondgerath, coach of the Jets.

On the other bench, Cardinals coach Kim Belmas said her young squad came into the game nervous, and it showed.

“We came here intimidated,” she said. “Jeffers is a very good team, and I think we arrived a little scared by that. They were not prepared mentally. Some of that is just the fact that we are young with a lot of sophomores on the team.”

She added that the maturity and experience showed in the difference between their first and third sets.

In the first set, the Jets needed just four servers to earn a lopsided win. Thirteen points came from a service run by Sammie Pennala. She pushed the Jets out from a 2-1 lead to a 15-1 lead. The Jets’ Taylor Heinonen finished the first set off with a run of five.

The second set looked much like the first. However, the Cardinals were able to stay within five points or so for much of the set – an improvement, but still a loss.

“The third was our best set,” noted Belmas. “It was as if we finally came to play, and we played our brand of volleyball to the point where we had an opportunity to win that one.”

That equated to the Cardinals taking their first lead of the night at 11-7. While the Jets came back to tie it at 14 with Reegan Kinnunen at the line, the Cardinals went up 17-15 and 18-16. The two teams traded points and tied again at 21, 22 and 23. It was then a race to 25, and the Jets won it in the end.

For the Jets, Kaeda Rajala had 12 kills, and Heinonen had three aces.

JETS NEED FOUR SETS TO TOP RED DEVILS

The Jets topped the Ironwood Red Devils Tuesday night in four sets, 25-15, 25-17, 23-25, and 25-19.

Rajala led the way with 15 kills. Mia Nordstrom added seven of her own. Nordstrom also had 37 digs in the match.

Heinonen had 20 assists and led the service game with four aces.

Johnson had 17 assists in the match as well.

UP NEXT

The Jets will welcome the Ewen-Trout Creek Panthers to Painesdale on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.