Unfortunately for the Jayhawks, their most cherished prize escaped them.

Genesee CC upset top-seeded Jamestown CC, 25-15, 25-21, in pool play, ending not only the Jayhawks’ 22-match winning streak, but also their bid to claim their fourth straight NJCAA Western New York Athletic Conference crown, which ultimately went to Mercyhurst North East.

“(Genesee CC) really played fantastic,” Jamestown CC coach Ashley Lund said. “I have to give it to them. Their hitters hit hard, they served aggressively, they were passing and digging balls. They played outstanding.

“I was surprised that we didn’t come out better. I don’t know if we put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect … and when things started to go south a little bit we just couldn’t recover from that. If there was any time to lose a game, this is the one to lose.”

From the left are All-Western New York Athletic Conference team members Cameryn Haines, Player-of-the-Year Jenna Caskey, Maddy Russo and Karleigh Haines. Submitted photo

In fact, as the team heads into next weekend’s NJCAA Region 3 Division III Tournament at Niagara County CC as the top seed, Lund remains optimistic. After all, until their loss to Genesee CC on Saturday, the Jayhawks were 18-0 against regional opponents and had lost only five sets all season.

“Now we have a chance to learn from the errors we made,” Lund said. “We’ll take this week to prepare, work on the things we struggled with today and fine-tune those things and have a chance to be successful next weekend.”

Interestingly enough, Jamestown CC will face the winner of No. 8 Genesee CC and No. 9 Herkimer College, who will square off in the sub-regional.

“Now we just prep for regionals and see what happens,” Lund said. “We could face (Genesee CC) again.”

The Jayhawks (24-5), began the day with a convincing win over Erie CC, but it was a different story against the Cougars. Although Jamestown CC, swept its two previous matches between the schools earlier in the season, it couldn’t answer Genesee CC’s strong performance yesterday.

Nevertheless, Lund said she left the tournament with her figurative glass “half full.”

For starters, the Jayhawks had four players — Player-of-the-Year Jenna Caskey, Cameryn Hawkins, Karleigh Haines and Maddy Russo were named to the All-WNYAC team while Lund was named the WNYAC Coach of the Year.

More honors could be forthcoming next weekend, too.

“We have some work to do,” Lund said. “We’ll learn, we’ll get better and hopefully we do really well.”

NOTES: Against Genesee CC, Caskey finished with seven kills, 11 digs and one block; Haines had one ace, six kills and one dig; Russo added one ace, 19 assists, two kills and three digs; and Hawkins collected 12 digs. … Against Erie CC, Caskey had three aces, two kills and seven digs; Haines had 11 kills, two digs and three blocks; Alexys Marsh added one ace, four kills, four digs and two blocks; and Jennah Starkweather had five kills and one dig.