OMAHA, Neb. – Conference play began for No. 20-ranked Midland University on Wednesday night as it made the short trip to take on (RV) College of Saint Mary in Omaha. The Warriors, who spent the better part of last weekend on the campus of CSM needed a little time to get settled in before rallying for a four-set win over the Flames (18-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-23) to open up their Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) schedule.
Playing in front of a boisterous crowd, the Flames were white hot to start the opening set. After dropping the first two points, they went on a 7-1 run and forced a timeout from the visitors. The run continued as CSM fed off the energy of its crowd who were decked out in white shirts, wigs, and chicken costumes. A run of four straight points forced the final stoppage from the Midland bench as the lead ballooned to 15-8.
The Warriors started to settle in and battled back with a seven-point run of their own. However, the deficit was too much to overcome as the Flames closed out the 25-18 win with a five-point run. Midland was plagued with eight hitting errors during the set while only tallying seven kills to hit -.029. CSM had eleven kills against six miscues to hit .135.
During the second set, Midland grew comfortable with its surroundings inside the Lied Fitness Center. The serve received and passing started to come together, leading to better attacks and better blocking at the net. Through the early going, the score went back and forth with CSM not backing down. After a tie at 6-6, the Flames went in front and held the Warriors at bay.
Trailing 21-17, Midland used a kill from Claire Johnson and Lauren Jones, followed by a block from Jones and Jacki Apel to spark a last-minute run. The Flames took a timeout but the Warriors kept coming with great effort by the defense. Apel tied the set at 22 with a kill and then Stella Kuehl delivered an ace to put MU at set point. After a side out gave CSM a glimmer of hope, Johnson and Apel stuffed home the winning point with a block.
After being held to one block in the first set, Midland had four blocks in the second. Apel had a hand in on three of them while the Warriors limited the Flames to a .111 hitting mark. The MU attack had 13 kills, six from the right arm of Brooklynn Snyder, as they hit .194 on the attack.
In the third, with the match tied at one set apiece, the scoreboard reflected the same situation with a split of the first six points. That was the last tie in the set as the Warriors scored the next three points to give them a little cushion. The lead continued to grow with CSM not able to maintain service and Midland stringing together mini runs.
With the score 20-14, CSM battled back to within three with a 3-0 run that brought a timeout from the Midland bench. Settling down, the Warriors scored five of the last eight points to earn the 25-20 win and take the lead in the match.
The block totals continued to rise for MU with five in the third. Abbey Ringler led the charge in the frame with three block assists while adding three kills to her stat line as well. Midland hit a match-best .290 in the third with 14 kills. CSM had its lowest attack mark of the night with a -.037 with 10 errors and 9 kills.
Down but not out, the Flames tried to rekindle their energy in the fourth. They went up 6-2 early on but started to flicker as the Warriors used an eight-point rally to take control, 10-6. After a few short bursts, CSM started to build some momentum and not only climbed back into the set, it took the lead 19-18 after a six-point run.
It was anyone’s set down the final few points with four ties on the scoreboard. With things knotted at 22-22, Ringler netted a kill and then helped persuade a mishit from the Flames to put Midland on match point. After timeout yielded a break in the run, the Warriors looked to have won the match on a kill from Apel. The Flames kept the ball up with a pancake dive but ultimately lost the point with an attack into the net. Midland wrapped up the win, taking the fourth set 25-23.
For the match, Brooklynn Snyder paced the team with 14 kills while hitting .290 on the outside. Abbey Ringler added 9 kills to go with 6 block assists while fellow middle blocker Jacki Apel had 8 kills and 5 block assists. As a team, the Warriors finished the night with 12 blocks.
In the back row, Delanie Vallinch had a match-best 20 digs from her libero position. Delainey Cast added 8 digs of her own as the team tallied 55 digs. Back behind the service line, the Warriors had eight total aces. Vallinch had three while Stella Kuehl added a pair. Kuehl also added 17 set assists while running the offense along with Brena Mackling who had a team-high 19 assists.
“I was very disappointed with how we started game one. I thought we were prepared on what to expect here, we knew there would be a great crowd, Rick’s teams always play well, and they’re well-coached. We just did not play well in game one,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann. “Then again, we didn’t get off to a great start in game two. I was really proud of our kids because we battled in game two to get that win. If we don’t get that one, it’s probably over. We started to play much cleaner after that. We started to win the serve and pass in games three and four, our block woke up and that was the match.”
Midland (5-6, 1-0 GPAC) will be idle this upcoming weekend before diving back into conference play. The Warriors will be back inside the Wikert Event Center next Wednesday when they host Mount Marty (7-2, 0-1 GPAC) in GPAC play. The teams are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start in Fremont, Nebraska on September 11.
