Lady Warriors Pick up GPAC Road Win, Sweep Lancers

YANKTON, S.D. – Midland University’s volleyball team was victorious in their final road contest of the year, sweeping Mount Marty in Great Plains Athletic Conference action by scores of 25-13, 25-23, and 25-21. Midland improves to 8-8 overall and 7-7 in the GPAC while Mount Marty drops to 5-20 overall and 0-15 in the league.
The Warriors hit at a .263 clip compared to .165 for the Lancers. Midland was effective from the service line with 11 aces compared to just one for the opposition. The Warrior defense was stout with 56 digs and six blocks. Senior Sydney Morehouse led the charge with 14 kills and a .345 hitting efficiency. Junior Taliyah Flores and senior Maggie Hiatt followed with 11 kills and 10 kills, respectively. Sophomore Hope Leimbach dished out 45 assists. Senior Jaisa Russell and sophomore Brooke Fredrickson combined for 26 digs.
Midland jumped out to a hot start, going up 13-2 thanks to an eight point scoring run. The run featured kills from three Warriors and a pair of aces from Fredrickson. The Warriors benefitted from Lancer hitting errors to extend the lead to 17-5. The Lancers would attempt to mount a comeback, but a Hiatt kill wrapped up the opening set by a score of 25-13.
Roles were reversed in the second set as Mount Marty got up 7-0. Senior Kaitlynn Simon was clutch from the service line, dropping in a pair of aces to narrow the deficit. Mount Marty’s lead would stand through the middle part of the set, but momentum was shifting to the Midland side of the net. It would be Simon again as another service ace tied the score at 18-18. A kill from Flores saw Midland’s first lead of the set at 22-21. Leimbach would record a well-timed kill to give her team set point before a kill from freshman Lauryn Samuelson clinched the set at 25-23.
The third set saw an early 2-2 tie before a four-point Midland run brought the score to 6-2. The Lancers pressed for points, but a Morehouse kill snapped the streak with the lead at 10-7. The score would become tight down the stretch as there were four ties before a Samuelson kill had Midland up 20-19. The Warriors buckled down, scoring four of the final five points, and took the final set by a score of 25-21.
“At times we were not very good offensively tonight as we made too many errors,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “Our defense and serve receive were solid all night and we were able to put a lot of pressure on them with our service. We’ll use the next few days to get rested up and get ready for our last conference match of 2020.”
Midland (8-8, 7-7 GPAC) will wrap up the regular-season with a match against Hastings College on November 20. First serve is slated for 7:00 p.m. inside Wikert Event Center.