Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – On the final night of the regular season, No. 22-ranked Midland University hosted No. 2-ranked Concordia University in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) showdown inside the Wikert Event Center on Tuesday night. After taking the opening set, the Warriors fell to the Bulldogs in four sets (25-22, 22-25, 22-25, 19-25). Before the match, Midland honored its four seniors; Jacki Apel, Abbey Ringler, Steph Strobel, and Delanie Vallinch; along with their families on Senior Night.
The Warriors started strong, securing the opening set after a late surge. Abbey Ringler‘s kill and a timely block with Lauren Jones tied the score at 22-22, and back-to-back blocks, including a final one by Ringler and Brooklynn Snyder, clinched the set, 25-22.
Midland carried the momentum into the second, quickly establishing a 4-0 lead. Concordia, however, fought back, capitalizing on a 6-1 run to edge ahead and ultimately take the set, 25-22.
Concordia’s momentum carried into the third, where they jumped to a 6-1 lead. Midland rallied to tie it at 15-15 and even took a brief lead, but the Bulldogs closed with a 5-1 run to win 25-22.
Needing a win to force a fifth set, Midland kept pace early in the fourth, but a short Concordia rally put the Bulldogs ahead. Despite a late push, the Warriors couldn’t overcome the deficit, as Concordia finished with four consecutive points to secure the set, 25-19, and the match.
Brooklynn Snyder led Midland with 13 kills, while Abbey Ringler contributed 10 and Lauren Jones added 9. Four players reached double-digit digs for the Warriors, with Delanie Vallinch tallying 14, Brena Mackling 11, and Delainey Cast and Kailyn Scott each recording 10. At the net, MU tallied 12 blocks, led by Ringler with eight and Jones with five.
The Warriors had a strong match at the service line with seven aces. Mackling had three while Vallinch added two. Sydney Guthard and Emmalee Sheppard each had one.
“You’ve got to give Concordia a lot of credit. They’re ranked No. 2 in the country for a reason,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “They have a lot of weapons in every rotation and they are really good with serve and pass. With that said though, I was really proud of our team. The first time we played them, they really whooped us at their place. I feel like we’ve made a ton of improvements since September. We are a much better team and it showed it tonight. We won game one and we’re sitting at 20-20 in the second and the third. We just couldn’t close it. We didn’t make the plays that we had to make.
As a team, Midland hit .112 on the night with 49 kills and 30 errors. Concordia had an attack percentage of .192 with 53 kills and just 23 errors.
“When you’re sitting there late in the game, you have to make the easy plays and make them more consistently,” added Coach Giesselmann. “We started out struggling this year with a really young team but here we are, the three-seed in the GPAC with 12 wins. We’ve put ourselves in a great position and I’m really proud of how much this team has improved in the past eight weeks or so.
“This is the time of the year we love. This is the part of the season where Midland Volleyball tends to be really good. What our focus has to be over the next three days, is just continuing to try and play at a higher level more consistently and get ready for the postseason.”
Midland (16-10, 12-4 GPAC) will be the three-seed in the upcoming GPAC Postseason Tournament. The Warriors will host sixth-seeded Dordt (14-15, 8-8 GPAC) in the opening round on Saturday. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. on November 9 in Fremont. The Warriors won the regular season meeting in straight sets over the Defenders back on September 28.
