FREMONT, Neb. – Playing on its home court for the first time in over three weeks, No. 20-ranked Midland University hosted Mount Marty University in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) match. Playing inside the Wikert Event Center, the Warriors got off to a good start as they earned a straight-set win over the Lancers (25-22, 25-18, 25-18).
After swapping points, a three-point run by Midland forced a timeout from the visitor’s bench. The rally continued as the Warriors went up 15-8 through the midway point of the opening set. Mount Marty started to chip away at the deficit and used an 8-3 run to pull within three at 20-17.
Another sustained rally of five straight points forced Midland into its final timeout, clinging to a 22-21 lead. The Lancers scored out of the break to even the score but three straight kills from Brooklynn Snyder slammed the door closed and gave the Warriors a 25-22 win. Snyder finished with five kills in the set as Midland was outhit .162 to .122. Julia Weber led the opposing side of the net with five kills in the set as well.
The second set saw back-and-forth action to start once more with the teams tied through the first 16 points. After an error by the attack gave Mount Marty the brief lead, Midland rattled off eight straight points to seize control of the set. Another long run put the Warriors in the driver’s seat as they held a 21-10 lead.
A run by the Lancers pulled them within five points but a quick timeout from the home bench broke the serve. Midland took the second set, 25-18, despite only hitting .091 with 10 kills and 7 errors. Mount Marty had a percentage of .118 with 10 kills and 6 errors. Weber added five more kills for the Lancers in the set while the Warriors were led by Abbey Ringler with four kills in set two.
Midland had its best start of the night in the third, getting out to an 8-4 lead and then building its advantage to 21-12. Down the stretch, the Lancers strung together a couple of short rallies but could not stop the sweep as the Warriors won 25-18.
Jacki Apel led a balanced attack for Midland in the third with four kills. Lauren Williams, Claire Johnson, and Ringler all had three as the team hit a match-high .159 on the attack. Weber and Caitlin Guenther both had three kills each for the Lancers who hit .000 with eight kills and eight errors.
For the match, Midland finished with a .127 attack percentage with 37 kills on 118 chances. Mount Marty hit .093 with 32 kills on 108 swings. Abbey Ringler and Julia Weber led their respective teams and were the only players with double-digit kills. Ringler had 10 kills while hitting .533 while Weber had a .357 percentage with 13 kills.
Brooklynn Snyder and Lauren Jones were the next-highest attackers for the Warriors with 8 and 6 kills, respectively. Claire Johnson and Jacki Apel both finished with 5.
Setting up the attack for Midland were Stella Kuehl and Brena Mackling. The duo had matching 16 assist nights while Kuehl added seven digs and an ace serve while Mackling had two digs to go with a season-high four aces. As a team, Midland had nine service aces with Delainey Cast adding a pair.
In the back row, Cast added eight digs while Delanie Vallinch had 16 digs from her libero position. Before the match, Vallinch was recognized for going over 1,500 career digs Apel was honored as well for eclipsing the 1,000-kill mark.
“Really happy with the win. Every GPAC win is a good win,” stated head coach Paul Giesselmann after the match. “The big focus tonight was getting off to a good start mentally in each set because we’ve struggled with that. I thought we did a nice job of that and played some good points but in the middle of the sets we had way too many errors. I thought we served very well tonight. Our block and defense were pretty solid. We have to find a way to get better offensively. In each set, we would make four or five hitting errors in a row and they’d get back in it.
“We’re sitting 2-0 in league play right now and we’re back to .500 but more importantly, our kids are gaining confidence. We’ll get in the gym, have two days of practice, then have a good opportunity on Saturday.”
Midland (6-6, 2-0 GPAC) will be on the road this upcoming weekend for a GPAC rivalry match at No. 3 Concordia (9-1, 2-0 GPAC). The Bulldogs swept the regular season series last year before the Warriors ended their season with a win at the NAIA National Championship. First serve is set for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 15 at Friedrich Arena in Seward, Neb.
