No. 12 Warriors Advance to Quarterfinals with Sweep

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – No. 12 Midland University volleyball made quick work of No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan University in the final game of pool play on Wednesday afternoon at the 2020 NAIA Volleyball National Tournament. The Warriors played inspired volleyball from start to finish, taking the match by scores of 25-19, 25-17, and 25-18 to hand Indiana Wesleyan its third loss of the year. Midland improves to 14-9 on the year while ending Indiana Wesleyan’s season at 21-3.
Midland hit a respectable .353 for the match, the third-highest mark of the season while holding Indiana Wesleyan to a .180 percentage—one of its lowest of the season. The difference in hitting percentage is a testament to the solid defense on the side of the Warriors, with Midland coming away with 63 digs versus 46 for the Wildcats. Taliyah Flores had another career day with 14 kills and 16 digs for her 13^th double-double of the year. Maggie Hiatt added depth on the pin with 13 kills while Midland’s middles combined for 14 kills and a .397 hitting percentage. Jaisa Russell was key in the back row with 20 digs, exceptional block coverage, and veteran serve receive. Hope Leimbach quarterbacked an offense that saw five players hitting .333 or better, and the sophomore dished out 44 assists to go along with 12 digs.
Set One
The teams were feeling each other out early in the set with Midland finding its first lead of the set at 5-4 off a cross-court shot from Maggie Hiatt. Indiana Wesleyan came back to tie things at 7-7 before an offensive misfire gave Midland a narrow lead. The score remained close with Midland taking its largest lead of the set at 15-11 off a block from Sydney Morehouse and Hiatt to force a timeout. The break-in action did nothing to slow the roll as Midland claimed the following two points to go up 17-12. The Warriors hit the 20-point mark, taking a six-point edge, on Hiatt’s fifth kill of the set. The Wildcats pressed back, but the Warriors continued to outlast in long rallies to go up 23-18. An off-speed from Flores brought up set point, and a commanding block from Hope Leimbach and Morehouse gave Midland the 25-19 win.
Midland hit .368 in the set compared to .196 for Indiana Wesleyan. The Warriors also out dug the Wildcats at a 19-16 clip. Flores and Hiatt led the charge with five kills each while Jaisa Russell came away with nine digs in the backcourt. There were nine tied scores in the set before Midland pulled away midway through.
Set Two
Everything was going right for Midland to kick off set two as Brooke Fredrickson picked up two, tough angle kills to lead 3-1. Leimbach continued to find ways to involve her middles with a slide kill from Morehouse to split the block at 6-5. The Warriors briefly trailed but managed to take an 11-10 lead off back-to-back kills from Fredrickson. Midland’s tough serving continued to keep Indiana Wesleyan off-kilter with the first ace of the match bring on a timeout at 14-11. Midland’s defensive prowess began to frustrate the opposition as several hitting errors and miscommunication brought the lead to 19-13. The lead held through the end of the set with a kill from Lauryn Samuelson closing it out at 25-17.
The Warriors hit .417 in set two while holding the Wildcats to a .188 clip. Flores paced the team with 10 kills and 10 digs through a pair while Fredrickson had seven kills on 13 swings (.538).
Set Three
The Wildcats led early in the set, but persistent defensive efforts on the side of the Warriors knotted the score at 4-4. The tied-up trend of the match continued into the third set as Indiana Wesleyan battled out of every deficit to stay in the game. On the other side, Midland found a side-out answer to go up after each tie with a 10-8 advantage causing another Wildcat timeout. The timeout worked to Indiana Wesleyan’s advantage, with the score moving to 10-10 before Flores’ 12^th kill of the match put Midland ahead. The Warriors saw their largest lead of the set after a kill from Morehouse found the court for a 16-12 edge. The lead continued to stand after a kill from Hiatt ended a monster rally to give the Warriors at 19-14 lead. The separation grew late in the set when a block from Morehouse and Flores brought things to 22-16.  The Wildcats sensed an end to their year on the horizon, but Midland’s fight was too much with a Hiatt kill closing things out in 25-18 fashion.
Comments from Coach
“Indiana Wesleyan is a well-coached team. By far the best side out team we’ve seen all year,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann post-match. “Even though when you look at the box score it looks like we dominated the match, every point was hard to come by. It came down to which team could sneak a point or two while they were back serving. Our strategy was to make them move on the serve receive so that their setter wasn’t on the net all the time. To their credit, they were still good and thought our serving was great today. We were able to do it enough to the get the win with some really good defense as well.”
Up Next
Midland (14-9) will advance out of Pool D with a 2-0 record and will be one of eight teams to advance to tomorrow’s quarterfinal action. The Warriors will face the winner out of Pool E and a familiar foe in No. 5 Northwestern College. The match between the two Great Plains Athletic Conference schools is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.