Courtesy of Midland Athletics
NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. – No. 2-ranked Midland University capped off a 4-0 weekend at the Labor Day Classic with wins over the University of Tennessee Southern, via a sweep, and Rocky Mountain College, in four sets, on Saturday. With the victories, they run their winning streak to 10 matches as they complete their nonconference schedule.
“I am really proud of our team’s effort this weekend,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann on Saturday evening. “I love how our team responded when we dug ourselves into a hole. I thought we played with a lot of composure and that comes from having great leadership. To finish the nonconference schedule with a 10-1 record against the competition we scheduled was very impressive by the girls. It will help us tremendously as we get into [Great Plains Athletic Conference] GPAC play.”
Midland 3, Tennessee Southern 0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-11)
The Warriors’ play from the day before carried over into Saturday morning’s match as they were once again low-error on the attack while featuring several different players. Six different attackers had at least one kill with Savanna Berger, Abbey Ringler, and Lauren Williams all having three. As a team, they hit .286 behind the setting of Hope Leimbach.
As the match progressed, their attack percentage rose. They hit .312 in the third and an amazing .432 in the third. For the match, Midland’s hitting percentage settled at .351 while Tennessee Southern hit .023 percent.
Individually, three players recorded double-digit kills. Brooke Fredrickson had an even dozen while Williams finished with 11 and Ringler had 10.
In the defense, Taliyah Flores and Delanie Vallinch reached double figures. Flores led the team with 17 while Vallinch tallied 10. At the net, the Warriors had 10 blocks as a team. Ringler was a part of six while Williams assisted on five.
Midland 3, Rocky Mountain 1 (25-21, 25-20, 18-25, 25-13)
In their final match of the weekend, the Warriors saw familiar faces across the net in the Battlin’ Bears. Back on the opening day of the season, the two teams met in Montana. Midland won that first meeting in straight sets.
The Bears were able to extend the match this time around, taking the third set. They utilized their size at the net, forcing Midland into hitting errors as well as blocking 13 attacks for the four-set match. Six of the stops came in their fourth set victory.
Midland’s defense was stellar in the match with 66 digs as a team. Taliyah Flores had 25 digs while Delanie Vallinch had 14 and Brooke Fredrickson added 11. Their steading play led to extra attacks from the offense orchestrated by Hope Leimbach.
Leimbach finished with 40 assists and added 3 kills of her own against the Bears. As a team, Midland hit .184 with 50 kills. Flores was atop the kill charts once again with 14 attacks for points. Lauren Williams was close behind with 10 including the final point of the match.
Midland (11-1, 1-0 GPAC) will turn its focus to conference play now with play picking back up this coming Wednesday. The 2nd-ranked Warriors will welcome the 10th-ranked Bulldogs of Concordia (10-0, 1-0 GPAC). First serve on September 7 is set for 7:30 p.m. inside Wikert Event Center in Fremont, Nebraska.
