FREMONT, Neb. – Not many things went College of Saint Mary’s way on Wednesday night.
The Flames lost a Great Plains Athletic Conference showdown with Midland University 3-0. The Warriors won by scores of 25-23, 25-8 and 25-23.
College of Saint Mary started the match without standout libero Rachel Cushing, who was sidelined due to an injury.
The Flames had some great moments early in the first set, but after that everything seemed to go Midland’s way.
“It was a very poor performance by us,” CSM Coach Rick Pruett said. “Not much energy to us and – other than in that first set – we were never really in it. Our offense struggled and that showed by the numbers. We were equally poor at the net defensively and made it really tough for our back row.”
Another injury to a CSM athlete in the third set also hurt CSM’s offense.
The Warriors outhit the Flames .211 to .016, but perhaps the biggest stat difference was in blocking. Midland had 32 blocks compared to CSM’s four.
Azaria Green led College of Saint Mary with 13 kills – seven of which came in the opening set. Teammate Kamryn Willman had six kills. Setters Lauren Anderson and Miranda Ring had 18 and 12 assists, respectively. Lexie Langley had a team-high 16 digs for the Flames, while Krissy Radicia added 15 and Anderson finished with 10.
“The only bright spot was our middles – led by Azaria with 13 kills and a .333 hitting efficiency and Kamryn hitting .286,” Pruett said.
The Flames drop to 3-2 in the GPAC and 14-3 overall. Midland improves to 4-1, 8-5. CSM resumes action Saturday with a home matchup vs. Dakota Wesleyan University. Junior varsity starts at 1:30 p.m. with varsity slated for 3 p.m.
*In JV action Wednesday, CSM beat Midland 2-1 by scores of 25-18, 24-26 and 15-13.
