On Air Now
Liz Stark
Mon- Fri: 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM

Despite Fourth Set Rally, Lady Warriors Fall in Five at Hastings

HASTINGS, Neb. – In their first match away from Fremont, Midland University was defeated by Hastings College in Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) play on Wednesday night. The Warriors opened the evening with a first set victory but would lose back to back sets after en route to a five set loss (25-19, 23-25, 23-25, 25-21, 6-15).
After falling behind 3-0 in the first, Midland came back with four unanswered points to take the lead. They would battle back and forth the Broncos the rest of the set, with the two teams tying one another five times thereafter. The last came at 13-13 before another 4-0 run the Midland to aid them to a 25-19 win.
Set two was a back and forth affair as well, as neither team took more than a three point lead. Midland was the team to hold that lead, coming at 19-16. Hastings would rally back though to close out the set and even the match with a 25-23 win.
In the third set Hastings took the first two points and never relinquished their lead. The Broncos lead wire to wire, winning 25-23 to seize control of the match.
The fourth saw the Broncos jump out in front early on Midland again. This time by a nine point margin, 15-6. The Warriors would utilize their timeouts to stop turn the momentum their way. They would climb back even at 19-19 and then take the lead and game 25-21 to force a fifth and deciding set.
In that final set, the Warriors were visibly fatigued as Hastings sprinted to a 15-6 set win, and a 3-2 match victory.
“We were really effective in the first two games setting our outside hitters and then we stopped doing it,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “Hastings is a much improved team from a year ago. They are a solid team but we flat out gave this one away starting with game two. We had a chance to go up 2-0 and we made three straight errors down the stretch to end the game. That’s the difference tonight. You can’t keep scoring those points for a really quality opponent and that’s what frustrating for us as a team.”
The Broncos outhit the Warriors .199 to .163 on the attack and nearly doubled-up Midland in blocks. Hastings had 15 total blocks compared to 8 for the Warriors.
Hope Leimbach had 51 set assists to lead the team. She added 12 digs for a double-double. Taliyah Flores and Brooke Fredrickson both had a double-double on the stat sheet as well. Flores had a team-high 17 kills along with 12 digs. Fredrickson had 14 kills and 16 digs.
Jaisa Russell had 18 digs from her libero position to lead the team defensively. At the net Sydney Morehouse and Maggie Hiatt each had a pair of solo blocks to pace Midland.
“We struggled offensively tonight, but I was very happy with our serving tonight,” added Coach Giesselmann. “I thought we had good location, good tempo, and we got their setters off the net a fair amount of time.”
Midland had seven service aces on the night. Four of which came from Russell.
“We’ll learn from this. We’ll go back. We’ll look at the film. As I told the girls, it’s a long season because it’s going until next April. We’re two matches into the GPAC. Unfortunately we’ve played two good teams and we’re 0-2. We’ve got to play cleaner volleyball.”
Midland (1-3, 0-2 GPAC) will be at home on Saturday evening as they host Doane (3-2, 1-2 GPAC). First serve between the Warriors and Tigers is slated for 5:00 p.m. inside Wikert Event Center in Fremont, Nebraska.

Related Posts

Loading...