With the final spot in Monday’s semifinals up for grabs, the teams went back and forth in the first set. A three-point run gave Dakota Wesleyan a 4-2 advantage before a run by Midland put them back in front, 7-6.
DWU would regain the lead at 8-7 and kept the Warriors at bay with shot rallies as they moved to setpoint at 24-19. At that moment, the tide started to change as Midland scored six straight to not only force extras but put them at setpoint.
The Tigers scored back-to-back points to put them on setpoint for the sixth time. A kill by Abbey Ringler followed by an attack error by DWU gave the Warriors a second chance at setpoint. Kailyn Scott came through with an ace serve to capture the first set, 28-26.
Six different Warriors had multiple kills in the opening set with Addisyn Mosier‘s four kills leading the way. Jessie Moss and Ringer each had three.
The excitement and energy from that comeback radiated into the second set. With Hope Leimbach, who was celebrating her birthday, leading the offense, Midland hit .233 in the set. Ringler was the primary force to be reckoned with as she accounted for 5 of the team’s 11 kills. The Warriors limited the Tigers to a .065 hitting percentage as they led wire-to-wire, taking the set with ease.
In the third, Midland’s defense stepped it up another level. They held Dakota Wesleyan to a sub-zero attack percentage (-.024) with four blocks. Ringler had a hand in on three of them, teaming with Leimbach twice. On the attack, Taliyah Flores led the way with five kills to send the Warriors to the next round.
For the match, Flores led the team with 10 kills while Ringler and Mosier each had 9. Leimbach coordinated the well-balanced attack with 34 set assists while registering 4 kills herself.
At the service line, Midland tallied eight aces. Jessie Moss and Lilli Rowe each had three, while Flores and Scott had the other two.
Defensively, the Warriors had 11.5 blocks compared to 6.5 for the Tigers. Ringler tied a career-high with 7 total blocks while Leimbach had 5 to go with a team-high 14 digs. Delanie Vallinch joined her in double digits with 11 digs as well.
“I’m just really proud of our girls, the way they’ve fought and battled all year long,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “I thought the difference in the whole match was the end of game one. We were struggling and made some unforced errors. We were down 24-19 and the serving of Jessie Moss and then Lilli Rowe, was just really impressive when you have a sophomore and a freshman back there. Their serving is what got us back into game one. We carried that momentum into game two and played much better then. You could see that our girls were really excited. Their focus has been to hang a banner up in Wikert [Event Center], and they guaranteed that with the win tonight. Now it’s just a matter of what it’s going to say.”
Midland (28-5) will move on to Monday night where they’ll meet another familiar face in Jamestown (35-2). It’ll be the second meeting of the season between the teams from the Great Plains Athletic Conference and the third-meeting all-time in the NAIA Championship. The Warriors bested the Jimmies back in the 2020 tournament to reach their first-ever title match. They’ll need to repeat the feat to keep their dreams alive for the national championship red banner.
