OMAHA, Neb. – It was a struggle offensively.
The College of Saint Mary volleyball team couldn’t get anything going Wednesday night and lost a quick 3-0 match to Midland University.
The Warriors, ranked No. 1 in the country at NAIA, cruised to a 25-22, 25-17, 25-11 victory in the Great Plains Athletic Conference contest. Midland is now 4-1 in the GPAC and 14-2 overall, while CSM falls to 3-2, 13-2.
“I’m just disappointed,” CSM Coach Rick Pruett said. “Midland is really good and they played really good defense tonight. But we had nothing offensively. We had 23 kills in a three-set match and had 21 errors.
“We gave so many plays away. We’d do something really great and then just give it right back.”
The Flames got a little run going in the start of the third set and went ahead 6-1 to open the set. But the Warriors outscored CSM 24-5 to finish the set – and match.
“They are quicker and more athletic than us,” Pruett said. “It’s not like they came and hit us off the court. We kept their First Team All-American (Taliyah Flores) to hitting to just .079. But we didn’t’ have any offense to answer.”
Makenna Freeman (SR/Omaha, Neb.) led CSM with six kills and 10 digs. Teammates Lexie Langley (JR/Fremont, Neb.) and Grace Werner (SO/Omaha, Neb.) added five kills each. Langley also had eight digs, while teammate Rachel Cushing (JR/Council Bluffs, Iowa) led her team in that category with 15. Setter Lauren Anderson (JR/Gretna, Neb.) had 17 assists and seven digs.
Defensivley, Rachel Rosenquist (SO/Dakota Dunes, SD) tallied six block assists.
“The positives from tonight is that we blocked better – we had 16 blocks,” Pruett said. “And we had a big crowd.
“We don’t have any time to cry about this. We face No. 18-ranked Dakota Wesleyan on Saturday.”
The Flames travel to DWU for a 3 p.m. match.
