No. 3 Midland University swept past No. 23 College of Saint Mary in front of a great crowd to open conference play on Wednesday night. The Warriors took the match, 25-22, 25-20, 25-20. They improve to 5-0 on the season overall while the Flames fall to 4-1.
Approximately 1,200 fans filled into the Wikert Event Center to watch the two nationally-ranked and unbeaten teams square off. It was the largest crowd to watch the Warriors since they played the Flames to end the 2019 season.
College of Saint Mary didn’t back down despite the two-set deficit. They exchanged points and leads with Midland in what would be the final set. The teams were tied at eight different times. With the set all even at 19-19, the Warrior scored six of the last seven to put the Flames away. Moss had a pair of kills in the run while Fredrickson had three, including the final two.
As a team, the Warriors hit .263 for the match with 52 kills on 137 swings. The Flames hit .185 with 39 total kills on 130 swings.
Joining Fredrickson and Moss in the Warriors’ three-headed attack was Taliyah Flores. All three of the hitters finished with double-figure kills and had 30 or more attempts on the night. Flores had a team-high 16 kills on 30 swings, Fredrickson had 14 kills on 32, and Moss had 10 kills on a team-high 36 swings.
Coordinating the attack was Hope Leimbach. She had 46 assists to go along with 9 digs, 1 kill, and 1 solo block.
Defensively, Flores (the one-time GPAC Libero-of-the-Year turn All-American outside hitter) had 17 digs. Delanie Vallinch, the team’s libero this year, matcher with 17 of her own. It was a new career-high for her and the fourth time she’s reached double-digits this season.
Midland (5-0, 1-0 GPAC) will get in the bus and travel to LaCrosse, Wisconsin this weekend for one of the premier volleyball tournaments of the season. The Viterbo Volleyball Classic will feature four nationally-ranked teams in a round-robin format. The No. 3 Warriors will face No. 1 Missouri Baptist, No. 9 Viterbo, and No. 21 Grand View. Midland will open up against MBU on Friday, August 28 at noon in a rematch of last season’s NAIA National Championship.
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