Midland Volleyball falls to Marian in NAIA National Tournament to end season

Midland Volleyball falls to Marian in NAIA National Tournament to end season
December 2nd, 2021 | midlandathletics.com

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Another chapter of Midland University Volleyball came to a close on Wednesday night. Playing their final day in pool play, the No. 9-ranked Warriors fell to No. 7 Marian University in four sets (19-25, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25), forcing a tiebreaker between themselves and No. 15 Montana Tech. In the extra single-set matchups, Midland bested Tech (25-22) before falling to Marian (19-25).

“I’m really proud of my team,” said head coach Paul Giesselmann after the final set. “They had a great season, played a great schedule, and for us to get in here and have a chance to get to the elite eight shows the caliber of team we had. We had one of the toughest pools here when you look at Montana Tech and Marian. I really loved how we battled.”

Marian 3, Midland 1

Things started out well for the Warriors as they built a 4-1 lead in the first set. That lead evaporated just as quickly as it developed. The Knights rallied with four straight points to tie the set, then take the lead at 5-4.

After trading points up to a 12-12 tie, Marian went on a 9-3 surge to seize control of the opener. The Warriors tried to stop the run with their full allotment of timeouts, but the deficit was too much to come back from as they exchanged points back and forth. Marian’s size at the net aided their 25-19, first-set win. They had five blocks defensively while hitting a match-best .464 on the attack.

In the second, Midland and Marian continued their give-and-take battle early on. With the score tied at 5-5, the Warriors went on a 3-0 run that grew into a 9-3 stretch. The Knights took a timeout, but the Warriors kept coming as they closed out the set with a 25-18 win. For the set, Midland hit .154 while Marian’s attack percentage was zeroed out by their 10 hitting errors.

Both offenses struggled in the third, Midland’s percent dipped below zero (-.020) as they had 14 errors on 13 kills. Marian’s was barely above (.028) as they had seven kills to offset their eight kills.

The score in the set was wire-to-wire in favor of the Knights. They scored the first two points and warded off each attempt by the Warriors to take control. Trailing by seven one point, Midland worked its way back to a tie at 17-17 and 19-19. However, a run of four straight hitting errors sank their chances as the Knights won 25-22.

In the final set, the outcome was up in the air throughout. While each team build a modest three-point lead, the other found a way to get back even. There were eight ties on the way to a 16-16 score. After that, the Knights had a two-point and a three-point spurt to give them the cushion they needed to close the set and the match, 25-21.

The Midland offense was led by Taliyah FloresBrooke Fredrickson, and Lauryn Samuelson. The trio all reached double-figure kills with 19, 14, and 10 respectively. Hope Leimbach finished with 49 assists as the team hit .077 with 55 combined kills.

At the net defensively, the Warriors had 10 total blocks. Getting a hand in on seven stops was Samuelson who arguably had her best game of the tournament. Behind the block, four players registered double figures in digs. Leimbach had 10, Fredrickson 13, Flores 14, and Delanie Vallinch had a team-high 15.

The result of the match set up tiebreaker matches between the three schools of Pool G to determine who would advance to the quarterfinals. The teams were ranked, based on the results of the set-wins, to set up a series of one-set tiebreakers. Midland would go up against Montana Tech with the winner moving on to face Marian for the pool championship set.

Tiebreaker 1: Midland 25, Montana Tech 22

After a 15-minute break and 30-minute warmup period, Midland and Montana Tech played a 25-point, win-by-two, tiebreaker set. The Warriors started out hot with a 10-2 run to begin. Kills by Taliyah FloresCortlyn Schaefer, and Brooke Fredrickson (2) paved the way with an ace serve by Jessie Moss mixed in.

The lead grew to 14-7, which prompted Tech to use their second and final timeout. The talk from their coaches calmed things for them as they began playing better. A 6-1 run by the Orediggers prompted Midland to take their first timeout.

The teams alternated points up to a 24-20 lead by the Warriors. Two points by Diggers to bring them within two led to the final timeout for Midland. After the talk, the Warriors closed out the Orediggers season with a combo block by Fredrickson and Hope Leimbach, 25-22.

Tiebreaker 2: Marian 25, Midland 19

In the win-or-go-home final set of the evening, Marian came out focused after watching from the stands. They scored the first five points, three via their block, to take control. Midland rallied with three straight points of their own but never recovered from the hole they were put in early.

Later on, the Warriors had to use their second timeout as their deficit reached six, 16-10. As hard they tried, they could never string together more than two points at a time as the Knights advanced to Thursday’s quarterfinal round with a 25-19 win.

Unofficially, Flores had 11 kills while Fredrickson registered 9 kills during the tiebreakers. In the first set, Leimbach and Ringler each had three block assists defensively.

“Having to go through two playoff matches, I think says a lot about our team. It’s always disappointing to lose and I really appreciate our three seniors but I’m already excited thinking about next year with all the players we’ve got coming back. Getting into the playoffs was a great experience for the young players we had on the court and it’s going to help us next fall.”

Midland caps off their 2021 season with a 25-6 record, their fourth-best in program history based on winning percentage. They had 11 wins over ranked opponents, including 6 at that start of the season which propelled them to a No. 1 ranking. They were ranked in the NAIA Top 10 all year and following the conclusion of the national tournament, should remain among the elite team in the nation.

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