FREMONT, Neb. – Playing in front of a nearly half-full Wikert Event Center, Midland University squared off against Concordia University on Wednesday night. The match was the 2020 Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) debut for both teams and the season opener for the visiting Bulldogs. Concordia would come away with the three-set sweep (25-19, 25-21, 25-23) thanks in large part to their superior passing and service game. With the loss, Midland falls to 1-2 (0-1 GPAC) on the season while Concordia moves to 1-0 (1-0 GPAC).
The opening set saw the Bulldogs and Warriors go back and forth, trading points en route to a 10-10 tie. Then a service ace by the Bulldogs compounded by an attacking error by the Warriors, Concordia when on a 10-3 run to take control. They would win the set 25-19, hitting .265 along the way.
Set number two followed a similar blueprint as the two teams once again traded points to open things up. After a tie at 12-12, the Bulldogs went on another burst to take a 16-12 lead. They would keep that lead rest of the way, winning 25-21.
With a possible sweep at their fingertips, Concordia jumped out on top early in the third. They would take a 10-6 lead that they stretched to 22-15. Midland wouldn’t go down without a last chance effort though. The Warriors would go on an 8-2 run to pull within one before one more error on the attack ended the set and match.
“We have to give Concordia a lot of credit. They played really, really well tonight,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann after the contest. “We knew they were going to be a great team coming in simply because they returned almost everybody from their Sweet 16 team. I thought their serving and passing tonight was very impressive and they just didn’t make a lot of errors. That was the difference in the game.”
Concordia had just 6 service errors on the night compared to the Warriors’ 11. On the attack, the Bulldogs hit .248 with 41 kills and 13 errors while Midland committed 19 errors and had 40 kills.
“There were times where I thought we played some very high-level volleyball,” added Coach Giesselmann added. “We’ve just got to work harder at sustaining that for an entire game.”
Sydney Morehouse led the way with 12 kills on the night. She was the lone Warrior in double figures with Lauryn Samuelson just short with 9. Hope Leimbach registered 35 set assists on the evening coordinating the Midland attack.
Defensively, Jaisa Russell and Taliyah Flores both had double-digit digs with 13 and 11 each. At the net, the Warriors had 7 team blocks with Maggie Hiatt the team leader with 4 block assists.
Midland will use this upcoming week to look at the film and get better in practice as their next match isn’t until next Wednesday. They’ll travel to Hastings, Nebraska to take on the Broncos (2-1, 1-0 GPAC) on September 16. First serve inside Lynn Farrell Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.
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