SIOUX CITY, Iowa – For the second straight day, No. 10 Midland University was on the road in Sioux City, Iowa as they took on Briar Cliff University in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) match. Day two was much better for the Warriors as they picked up a sweep over the Chargers, 25-23, 25-20, 26-24. The victory moves their record to 9-7 overall and to 5-3 in the conference.
Briar Cliff took an early lead of 11-5 before MU roared back with a 10-4 run to knot the set at 15-15. After a timeout by the Chargers, the score lingered within a point or two up to a 23-22 advantage for BCU.
Following the final timeout of the opening frame, the Warriors got back-to-back kills from Abbey Ringler to put them on set point. A kill from Jessie Moss on the outside clinched the set win, 25-23.
The second set followed the trend from the middle and end of the first as the two squads traded points and led early. There were nine ties through the first 24 points. With each team sitting on an even dozen, Midland went on a 5-1 run to put a little separation between the teams.
Briar Cliff kept fighting as they knotted the score at 19-19. A kill by Moss followed later by back-to-back attacks from Lauren Williams made it a 23-19 advantage. Needing just two points to go up 2-0 in the match, Midland induced an attack error from BCU and then got a kill from Cortlyn Schaefer to close it out 25-20.
Set three saw plenty of kills as both had their highest hitting percentage on the afternoon. Midland hit .341 in the set while Briar Cliff had an attack percentage of .316. As evident in the closeness of the attack numbers, the set was equally close.
After the Chargers jumped out in front 9-4, the Warriors started to reel them in. A 3-0 run cut the lead to two and then a 4-0 run put them ahead 14-13, prompting a timeout from the home team.
Following the break in action, BCU worked itself back in front, 16-15. The score never saw a gap of more than one point up to a tie at 24-24.
Looking for the straight-set win, Midland got a tip-kill from Williams and then saw the answer from BCU go into the next for an attack error.
For the match, the Warriors hit .227 with 53 kills on 132 attempts. The Chargers finished with an attack percentage of .138 with 31 kills on 109 swings.
Three Warriors reached double-digits in kills in the sweep. Jacki Apel and Lauren Williams led the way with 11 while Abbey Ringler had 10. Just missing out on joining the club was Jessie Moss, who finished with 9.
Coordinating the attack were Brena Mackling and Brielle Power. The duo combined for 54 assists in the sweep with Mackling setting up 32 kills and Power 20.
Defensively, Midland was limited to five blocks at the net. Ringler had a solo stop to go along with a pair of assists. In the back row, Delanie Vallinch had 20 digs. It was the seventh time she’s reached 20-plus digs this season with the most recent occurrence coming at Mount Marty.
“I was really proud of our team for the way they responded after a very disappointing loss on Friday,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann. “We did a lot of good things today. I thought Jessie Moss played a very good match on the outside. We need a great week of practice so that we are prepared for two big GPAC opponents next weekend.”
No. 10 Midland (9-7, 5-3 GPAC) will host (RV) Dakota Wesleyan (13-10, 4-4 GPAC) on Friday and No. 14 Jamestown (15-5, 8-0 GPAC) on Saturday. The first serve between the Warriors and Tigers is set for 7:30 p.m. on October 6 inside the Wikert Event Center in Fremont.
