SIOUX CITY, IOWA — No. 12 Midland University volleyball earned a 3-0 sweep of No. 20 Rocky Mountain College (Mont.) to open up pool play at the 2020 NAIA Volleyball Championships on Tuesday night. The Warriors came ready to play, and the momentum carried throughout as Midland took the match by scores of 25-9, 25-18, 25-20 to improve to 13-9 on the year.
Midland hit .230 on the night versus .053 for Rocky Mountain. The defense was dandy on both sides of the court, but the Warriors held a 76-69 advantage in digs. Serving was a key piece in tonight’s match with the Warriors committing just five errors to go along with seven aces. The Battlin’ Bears had just one ace on the night.
Junior Taliyah Flores led all players with 14 kills on 42 swings (.262) to go along with 19 digs for her 12th double-double of the season. Senior Maggie Hiatt followed with nine kills, and Midland’s middle blockers chipped in eight kills apiece. Sophomore Hope Leimbach coordinated a balanced, confident attack with 38 assists and 10 digs. Senior Jaisa Russell kept rallies alive with 17 digs and stout serve receive.
Set One (Midland, 25-9)
The Warriors were cruising early in the match as a kill out of the middle by Taliyah Flores ended a long rally with Midland up 5-1. Midland’s backcourt continued to frustrate Rocky Mountain’s offense with scrappy play leading to an 8-2 advantage. The Bears found ways to stay in rallies, but setter Hope Leimbach continued making veteran decisions while feeding the offense. Those decisions were paying off as a sharply-cut kill from Sydney Morehouse extending the lead to a commanding 16-3 score. Rocky Mountain came out of a timeout with a kill out of the middle, bringing things to 17-4, but a quick side-out kill from Maggie Hiatt put the Warriors back at the service line. The lead continued to grow, and an ace from Maggie Sempeck closed out the set in 25-9 fashion.
Midland had 12 kills and hit at a .321 clip while holding Rocky Mountain to three kills and 10 errors for a -.233 percentage. Midland’s attack was balanced in the set with five players recording at least two kills.
Set Two (Midland, 25-18)
The teams were more evenly matched in the early goings as Brooke Fredrickson found a kill off the block for a 5-3 lead. The Bears continued to show vast improvements from set one as the score moved to 9-7 in favor of Midland. Rocky Mountain pulled within one, but a pair of thundering kills from Lauryn Samuelson had the Warriors up 11-8. The Warriors saw their largest lead of the set at 15-11 when Morehouse found success out of the middle for a kill. Rocky Mountain countered with a middle attack of its own, but Hiatt responded with a kill over the block to bring things to 17-13. Katlin Simon pushed the score to 20-15 after a service ace caught a receiver high. Simon’s serve continued to keep the opposition out of system, and the Bears were forced to burn a timeout with the score at 21-15. The timeout did nothing to slow the momentum of the Warriors as a Flores kill ended the set at 25-18.
After two sets, Flores paced the team with seven kills and nine digs. Samuelson and Hiatt followed with six kills while Samuelson’s .500 hitting percentage led all players. Midland had six aces compared to just one for Rocky Mountain.
Set Three (Midland, 25-20)
Flores hammered a kill down the line, erasing an early Bears’ lead to give Midland a slight 3-2 edge. The Warriors doubled up the lead at 8-4 before Rocky Mountain put up a double block to narrow the gap. The Bears sent a kill off the shoulder of Jaisa Russell to tie the set, but a crafty kill by Leimbach saw Midland up again. The teams found themselves in several knotted scores through the middle of the set with neither side finding more than a one-point cushion. Midland grabbed a 13-12 lead off a kill from Flores to force a timeout, but Morehouse picked up a solo stuff out of the break to pull her team head further. Rocky Mountain countered with a scoring run to go ahead 15-14 before Flores’ 13th kill of the night tied things up again. Midland was the first to 20 points as a kill from Samuelson rattled off a pair of defenders for a two-point edge. Rocky Mountain forced long rallies late in the set, but Midland was the first to set point, going up 24-20 before an ace from Sempeck closed out the match.
The Warriors hit .152 in the third set, their lowest efficiency of the night, but still outhit Rocky Mountain’s .111 mark.
Comments from Coach
“I am really proud of the girls tonight,” said head coach Paul Giesselmann after the sweep. “I told them before, coming into this match, everybody is good once you get to Sioux City. How we come out those first five points can really set the tempo and I thought the way we came out focused and ready to go really set the tone for the match.”
“I thought we passed really well those first couple of games. Our serving was pretty good…matter of fact it was really good in game one. We backed off a bit in game two and didn’t make their setter work quite as much. We talked about it during a timeout and I thought they picked it up in the latter half of game two and into game three.”
Up Next
Midland (13-9) will resume pool play tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. with a win-or-go-home matchup against No. 4 Indiana Wesleyan University. The top team out of each of the eight pools will advance to the single-elimination bracket on April 29. Midland and Indiana Wesleyan each hold a 1-0 record in pool play with Rocky Mountain going 0-2 on the day.
On Air Now
Your Favorite Music
