Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – For the second time this season, No. 18-ranked Midland University took the court against the College of Saint Mary on Wednesday night. After starting the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) slate with a four-set win in Omaha, the Warriors needed four sets once more to douse the Flames inside the Wikert Event Center. Midland took the match (14-25, 25-18, 25-22, 28-26) before a boisterous crowd.
Things didn’t start well for the Warriors in the opening set. The Flames started hot with a quick 12-6 lead that forced the home bench into a timeout. Out of the break, Midland tried to climb back into the set but was thwarted away by CSM at every turn. A three-point rally made it 21-12 and the Flames cruised to a 25-14 win while hitting a blistering .262 on the attack with 13 kills and only 2 errors. Midland hit .067 with 7 errors against 10 kills in the opening frame and was saddled by four service errors.
“I was very disappointed in how we came out in game one,” stated head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “We’re on our homecourt, we had a couple of great days of practice, and I fully expected us to play well tonight. For us to come out and start the way we did was disappointing.”
Early on in the second set, the teams split points with neither side able to sustain a rally. Through the first 12 points, there were five ties. Midland used a 4-1 run to edge its way in front and then a three-point swing to go up 14-9.
After trading points for a stretch, the Warriors went on a four-point run to reach set point. Back-to-back points from CSM delayed the eventual out, a 25-18 win by the Warriors. Jacki Apel and Brooklynn Snyder had a stellar set with six and five kills to lead the way while Abbey Ringler registered three kills, including the 1,000th for her career. Midland hit a match-high .310 in the second with 17 kills while limiting CSM to a .049 mark.
In the third, the Warriors went up with a couple of short rallies while limiting the Flames to points on side-outs. Trailing 10-6, CSM started to find its rhythm as it pulled within a point at 16-15. The Flames eventually pulled even at 21-21 thanks to a 5-2 run. Back-to-back points by the Warriors led to a timeout from the visitors’ bench. MU took two of the next three points to go up two sets with the 25-22 win.
Apel was the workhorse for the Warriors’ attack in the third with 5 kills on 10 attempts. Snyder and Ringler also saw continued success as well with three kills each as Midland hit .220 on the attack, raising its match percentage a few points higher. CSM was held to a .078 hitting mark with 14 kills and 10 errors.
Needing a win to keep the match going, the Flames had to rally back after falling behind 6-2 in the early stages. A five-point rally put them in front 14-13, yielding a timeout from the Warriors’ sideline. The next two points went to CSM before Midland used a four-point run to knot things back up a 19-19.
Following ties at the next two points, Brena Mackling sent a dump attack over the net. Play continued on after a pancake dig by CSM’s defender popped the ball up. One of the four officials saw the ball hit the floor and after the point was played out, the group gathered to go over the play. After discussing what each trained official saw, the point was ruled mute and the score was reset back to 21-21.
The College of Saint Mary regrouped and was able to reach a set point on three different occasions. The first time, Claire Johnson kept Midland in the set. On set-point number two, a mishit by the Flames kept things going. The third set-point was ruined as the Flames service went into the net.
With renewed energy from the home crowd, Midland forced back-to-back hitting errors by CSM to close out the set, 28-26, and the match, 3-1. The Flames had 12 hitting errors in the fourth and hit a match-low .022 with 13 kills. The Warriors countered with a .114 hitting percentage with 12 kills and 8 errors. Ringler paced the offense with four kills while Snyder added three.
“We talked about putting CSM’s record aside. They are a really good team, got good players, and one of the best coaches in the league. I thought we were well prepared but lesson learned. CSM always comes into our place and gives us a great match. We just didn’t handle it in game one.
“I liked the way we responded,” added Coach Giesselmann. “We changed our rotation in games two and three to get a few matchups we liked and I think that made a difference. We started passing better but our serving wasn’t very good all night. It was not our normal serving game.
“A lot of credit has to go to our two setters tonight. Brena [Mackling] is a young setter, which is something we forget at times, and Stella [Kuehl] is just a freshman. The composure they had down the stretch kept our kids in it.”
For the match, Midland hit .180 while the College of Saint Mary had a .101 attacking percentage. Brooklynn Snyder had a match-high 15 kills followed by 13 for Abbey Ringlerand 12 for Jacki Apel. Orchestrating the offense were Brena Mackling and Stella Kuehl. Mackling had 24 set assists while Kuehl finished with 23.
Defensively, the Warriors had eight blocks at the net. Apel and Ringler had a hand in on five each while Lauren Jones and Cameran Jansky assisted on three blocks each. In the back row, Delanie Vallinch had 23 digs as the MU libero. Kailyn Scott had an active night as well with 18 digs from her defensive specialist role.
Midland (14-9, 10-3 GPAC) will turn its attention to another nearby rival with a weekend match at Doane (8-17, 3-9 GPAC) up next. The Warriors and Tigers will meet up for the second time this season on Saturday, October 26. First serve is set for 3:00 p.m. inside the Haddix Center in Crete, Neb.
