Raiders Rally Back to Upend Lady Warriors

ORANGE CITY, Iowa – Midland University looked comfortable after taking a 2-0 set lead over Northwestern College on Saturday night. Northwestern would prove why they are one of the top programs in the Great Plains Athletic Conference by rallying to pull off the reverse sweep of the Warriors by scores of 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 25-27, 10-15.
Midland falls to 7-7 overall and 6-6 in the GPAC while Northwestern improves to 13-2 on the year and 11-2 in the league.
The Warriors hit .222 for the match compared to .271 for the Red Raiders. Serving was up and down for Midland throughout the match as the team committed 17 errors compared to six aces. Digs were nearly even with Northwestern claiming a slight 64-63 advantage. Both teams were stout at the net with a combined 23 blocks for the match.
The Warriors had four players reach double-digit kills as Taliyah Flores paced the group with 20. Maggie Hiatt contributed 19 kills to go along with three blocks. Lauryn Samuelson and Sydney Morehouse each collected 11 kills and combined for nine blocks. Hope Leimbach racked up 59 assists and seven digs. Jaisa Russell recorded a season-high 27 digs.
“It was disappointing to lose because I loved the effort the girls played with,” said Head Coach Paul Giesselmann. “Northwestern is a great team, well-coached, and it is typical that it was a five-set match.”
The first set was tightly contested as Midland saw a narrow 7-6 lead after a kill from Hiatt. Northwestern countered with four-straight points before a Midland run knotted the score at 10-10. Back-to-back aces from Kaitlynn Simon brought Midland’s lead to 14-10. The Red Raiders pulled within one at 19-18 before a Hiatt kills gave the Warriors a two-point advantage. A pair of Midland errors allowed Northwestern to tie things up in the final points, but Flores would secure the 25-23 set win with a kill.
The Red Raiders jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the second set before a Midland run tied things up at 7-7. The lead continued to switch sides down the stretch. A pair of kills from Hiatt saw Midland up 17-14. The Warriors saw their largest lead of the set after a block from Brooke Fredrickson and Morehouse brought the score to 21-17. An ace from Flores capped off the second set with a 25-19 Midland win. Midland hit .438 in the set compared to .138 for Northwestern.
Midland kept things close in the third set as an ace from Fredrickson had the Warriors down 9-8. Northwestern would string together a pair of runs to go up 19-12. Service errors continued to plague the Warriors as Northwestern’s lead grew to 22-15. Samuelson put away a kill to bring the score to 23-18, but a pair of Red Raider points closed out the set in 25-18 fashion. Roles were reversed in the set as Northwestern enjoyed a .500 hitting percentage compared to .179 for Midland.
Midland took advantage of Northwestern errors early in the fourth set to tie things up 2-2. Kills from Morehouse and Flores, as well as a Fredrickson ace, saw another tie at 5-5. Neither team could find much separation as a block from Flores and Morehouse had Midland down 20-19. A solo block from Hiatt gave Midland their first lead of the set at 23-22. It would be Hiatt again as her kill gave the Warriors match point. Northwestern buckled down on their home court, scoring three-straight, for a 27-25 win. There were 10 ties in the set.
The deciding set opened with both teams committing service errors. Morehouse put away a kill which had Midland down 4-3. The Warriors had their first lead of the set at 5-4 off yet another Morehouse kill. Hiatt found space down the line for another kill to bring the score to 8-8. Northwestern reclaimed the lead and enjoyed a scoring run before an error had the score at 13-10. Midland was unable to muster a comeback and ultimately fell by a fifth set score of 15-10.
“We are a really good team right now, and Northwestern just made a couple more plays than we did,” commented Giesselmann. “We need to keep working to get better and be ready for Tuesday.
Midland (7-7, 6-6 GPAC) is back on the road for a conference matchup with Doane University (4-11, 2-11 GPAC) on Tuesday night. The game is slated for a 5:00 p.m. start.