Midland Athletics
Jeff Braun, Assistant Athletic Director
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – No. 24 Midland University went on the road for the second straight night and once again found success as they won a four-set match at Briar Cliff University on Saturday (25-23, 23-25, 25-15, 25-14). The Warriors improve to 16-8 on the year and move to 7-4 in Great Plains Athletic Conference play. The Chargers, who dropped their ninth straight match, fall to 13-16 overall and 3-11 in the GPAC.
The Warriors looked sluggish in the opening set, falling behind 17-9 before a big rally. They would go on a run to tie the game at 22-22 and then overtook the Chargers to win the game 25-23. Midland had 10 errors in the opener against 15 kills to hit .111 on the attack. BCU hit .179 with 13 kills and just 6 errors.
In the second the Chargers once again took the early lead and then Midland battled their way back. After being down 11-6, the Warriors would get as close as one point at 19-18 but Briar Cliff would avoid any chance of a sweep on their senior night and close out the set, winning 25-23.
After a quick visit to the locker rooms, the Warriors came out focused and reenergized just like the night before. In the third period they hit .263 with 16 kills and just 6 errors. Defensively they held BCU to .143 hitting as they managed only 9 kills and had 4 errors.
The fourth set followed the same script as Midland closed out the match with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .216. Briar Cliff had their worst game of the match hitting -.054 with 7 kills and 9 errors.
“We made a great comeback in game one that really changed the whole dynamics of the match,” commented head coach Paul Giesselmann. “Bree did a great job serving during the run. Even though we lost game two, we did a great job during games three and four of playing high level volleyball.”
Coordinating the attack was Bree Burtwistle and Hope Leimbach. They combined for 53 set assists with Burtwistle leading the way with 28. She also added 13 digs for her third double-double of the year.
Taliyah Flores led the team in digs from her libero position with 18 digs from the back row.
At the net Midland had 10 blocks as a team. Leading the way was Maggie Hiatt who had a hand on six of those blocks.
Offensively Hiatt led the team with 16 kills. Joining her in double figures were Shelby Bretschneider and Brooke Fredrickson with 14 and 12 respectively. Midland hit .196 as a team for the match.
“We were low error and played solid team defense,” added Coach Giesselmann. “Now we have to get back in the gym and continue to get better in practice. We’ve got two big matches next weekend at home.”
Up next for Midland (16-8, 7-5 GPAC) is another Friday-Saturday slate as they host No. 8 Jamestown (22-4, 10-2 GPAC) and then Dakota Wesleyan (19-9, 4-9 GPAC). First serve between the Warriors and Jimmies is set for 7:30 p.m. on November 1 and the match with the Tigers is set for a 3:00 p.m. start. Both matches will be played inside Wikert Event Center in Fremont, Nebraska.