Lady Warriors Drop Road Match at Dakota Wesleyan

MITCHELL, S.D. – Midland University dropped a conference road game at Dakota Wesleyan University on Wednesday night. The Warriors and Tigers, who were originally scheduled to play at the end of next week, took the court at the World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota after another adjustment in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) schedule.
Midland took the first set of the night 25-16 but would falter the next three, losing 25-22, 25-23, and 26-24. The Warriors fall to 2-5 (1-4 GPAC) while the Tigers improve to 7-4 (4-4 GPAC).
“Credit goes to Dakota Wesleyan on getting points at the right time. Especially in games three and four,” head coach Paul Giesselmann said after the loss. “At times we looked like a top 20 team tonight but we had too many errors in every phase of the match. We’ve got to work on being more consistent in games and build upon our successes.”
On paper, the teams were fairly even from an attacking standpoint. The Warriors hit.118 while the Tigers countered with a hitting percentage of.125. The difference was in the serving and the block. Midland had 14 service errors to DWU’s 7 while the Tigers had 14 blocks to the Warriors’ 9.
Individually the Warriors were led by setter Hope Leimbach who had a team-high 18 digs to go with her 46 set assists. Jaisa Russell and Taliyah Flores also registered double-digit digs with 16 and 15 respectively.
At the net, Maggie Hiatt let the Warriors with 17 kills on the evening and also added 4 blocks while Flores also reached double figures with 13 kills and a pair of blocks.
“We’ve got to get back in the gym and prepare for a quality Dordt team on Saturday,” Coach Giesselmann added. “That being said we’ve got to worry about our side of the net and work on sustaining runs.”
Midland will host Dordt (6-3, 5-3 GPAC) on Saturday evening. The Defenders fell to Morningside on Wednesday night and have now lost four of their last five matches. The 5:00 p.m. match inside Wikert Event Center is also part of Midland University’s Homecoming weekend.