Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – Playing for the final time on their home court this season, No. 3 Midland University faced the Indiana Institute of Technology in an NAIA Opening Round match on Saturday afternoon. It was a battle of teams with the same moniker inside Wikert Event Center with the Warriors of Midland sweeping the Warriors of Indiana Tech (25-21, 25-19, 25-19). The victory advances Midland to the final site of the NAIA Women’s Volleyball Championship with a 26-4 record. Indiana Tech’s season comes to a close with a 28-8 mark.
After gifting the first point of the match to Tech, Midland worked their way to an 11-4 lead in the opening set. Three kills by Abbey Ringler, who returned from a two-match absence, highlighted a run alongside a pair of kills from Addisyn Mosier. They both reached five kills as Midland hit .267 in the first set, winning 25-21.
The second set saw Ringler continue to make up for lost time with four more kills off the set of Hope Leimbach. Midland raced out to a 6-1 lead and led wire-to-wire. Indiana Tech battled its way back, pulling within a point at 18-17. Five straight points by MU put them on the edge of going up two sets. A kill by Cortlyn Schaefer and Lauren Williams finished off Tech, 25-19.
With an adjustment to their rotation to start the third, Indiana Tech showed a renewed spirit on the court. They took an early 3-1 edge and kept the lead through the first half of the set. Trailing 9-6, Midland went on a 3-0 run to tie the set. The teams traded points up to an 18-18 tie before Midland went on a 7-1 run to wrap up their ninth trip to Sioux City and the final site of the national tournament.
Leimbach guided Midland to a .327 hitting percentage with 43 set assists. She added 8 digs, an ace serve, and a kill to her stat line.
Leading the team in kills was Taliyah Flores with 12. Mosier was next with 11, while Ringler finished with 10.
Defensively at the net, Midland had 10 blocks. Ringler had a hand in on four, with two solo stuffs, while Williams had three. In the back row, Delanie Vallinch had a match-high 12 digs.
“I’m just really proud of our girls. The goal when you start out in August is to get to Sioux City,” said head coach Paul Giesselmann. “We played a really good team today. They were very well-prepared and well-coached. I didn’t feel like we played our best. Our serving and passing, specifically, were some of the weaker parts of our game today. Normally, those two are our strengths. We’ll go back in and work on getting better in those areas in practice next week. This time of year, it is all about winning and advancing. We are excited we get to continue on. You could tell by their excitement as we got to match point.”
“Today was the last time that Hope and Taliyah were going to get to play a match in Wikert in front of their fans and families. I told them to take it all in and enjoy it,” added Coach Giesselmann. “Our fans have shown us a lot of love this season and they saw today how much this season means to us. This is a team that was focused on getting to the final site and they are not going to take things for granted.”
Midland (26-4) will learn its pool assignment from the NAIA on Sunday. They’ll likely be the top seed in one of the pools, which would correlate to matches on Wednesday, November 30, and Friday, December 2. The 2022 NAIA National Championship is held inside the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa. Look for updates on the Warriors on the Midland Athletics website, www.MidlandAthletics.com, and on social media (@Midland_Sports)
