MANDAN – They kept believing, and it paid off.

Rallying from a set down and from a fourth set deficit, Jamestown Blue Jays Volleyball earned a fourth consecutive state tournament appearance Friday with a four-set win over Minot 20-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-23 in the semifinal round of the AA West Region tournament at Mandan High School’s Starion Bank Gymnasium.

Four times in the fourth set, Minot held four-point leads, the last being at 23-19.  After that, Jamestown (21-11) scored the last six points on a kill by Lucy Falk, a Minot attack error, back-to-back aces by Haley Attleson and two more kills by Falk.

Falk had 24 kills, two blocks, 15 digs and and ace for the Blue Jays.  Claire Marker scored 12 kills, a block, an assist and four digs.  Amelia Newman had eight kills, 21 digs and two aces.  Jetta Peterson registered 25 digs and Hannah Attleson had 31 assists.

Kynsli Gilmore had 14 kills and 21 digs for Minot (20-13), which was looking to earn its first state tournament berth since 2011 and still can with a win Saturday in a state qualifier against Legacy.

For the second straight match, Jamestown eclipsed 50 kills, scoring 53 to 38 for Minot.  The Blue Jays served eight aces while the Majettes had just two.  Jamestown also scored 10 blocks.

On Saturday, the Blue Jays will meet Century for the region championship.  Jamestown gave Century its only regular season conference loss on October 30 in Jamestown.  Coverage of Saturday’s match will begin at around 3:45 PM on Thunder Country 98.3.