The Minnesota West Bluejay football team has repeated as the No. 2 ranked squad in the country in this week's National Junior College Athletic Association Division III poll.
College of DuPage is once again No. 1 and captured all six first-place votes for a total of 20 points. The Bluejays had 16 points and are followed in the top five by Hudson Valley Community College, Louisburg College and North Dakota State College of Science.
This past Saturday, Minnesota West earned a hard-fought 27-15 victory at Rochester, tacking on a fourth-quarter safety and late touchdown after clinging to an 18-15 edge. Quarterback Elijah Alexander passed for two touchdowns on the day and completed 16-of-27 passes for 310 yards and no interceptions. Marlon Fluker caught six passes for 184 yards, including both of Alexander's TD tosses.
On defense, Deante Porter and Alton Williams each had a team-leading six solo tackles. Bryce Nuttal, Justin Spears and Matthew Bennett all picked off Rochester passes.
The 5-0 Bluejays will play host to Minnesota North College-Vermillion this Saturday afternoon.
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Minnesota West's women's volleyball team, meanwhile, slipped one place to No. 6 in this week's NJCAA Division III poll. The Lady Jays won their Friday night match before falling 3-1 at No. 2 ranked Century College on Saturday.
Dallas College Eastfield remains at No. 1. The No. 3 through No. 5 teams are Finger Lakes Community College, Dallas College Brookhaven and Sandhills Community College. The Lady Jays next play at Western Technical College on Wednesday.
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The Minnesota West Bluejay soccer team, which played a match last night at the Northwestern College junior varsity, has a pair of important matches later this week that are also on the road.
The Bluejays will meet Dakota County Technical College on Thursday evening, then play at Alexandria Community & Technical College on Saturday afternoon. The team will next compete at home next Wednesday, Oct. 9, when it entertains Riverland at 6 p.m.
In a conference match last Wednesday at Trojan Field, visiting Anoka-Ramsey scored the first three goals and then held off the Bluejays to post a 3-2 win. Prince Lebbi put Minnesota West on the board with a goal at the 35-minute mark on an assist from Petrus Pekkeriet. The Bluejays made it 3-2 when Lebbi scored at 50 minutes of the second half on a feed from Jose Chavez.
The Bluejays are now 2-2 in conference play and 2-4 overall.
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