No. 18 Warriors Get Big Road Win; Smother No. 8 College of Saint Mary

OMAHA, Neb. – With the conference regular season starting to wind down, No. 18 Midland University is starting to gel at the right time and showed a glimpse of what they are capable of on Wednesday night. Playing on the road at No. 8 College of Saint Mary, the Warriors were dominant at times over the team that recently unseeded the number-one ranked team in the nation over the weekend. Midland used a strong defense at the net as they won in four sets over the Flames (25-14, 25-22, 23-25, 25-11).

Focused on starting each set off well, Midland sprinted out to a 5-1 lead which forced CSM into an early timeout. They did so behind a kill from Lauren Williams to start the scoring and the three from arm Abbey Ringler.

The lead continued to grow as the Warriors routinely blocked the Flames' attack. They cruised to the 25-14 opening set win as they finished with nine blocks as a team while limiting CSM to a -.162 percentage (6 kills against 12 errors) on the attack. MU had a .205 hitting mark with 13 kills and just 5 errors.

Set number two saw a much more even battle as the defensive picked up on the CSM side of the net and stayed steady for Midland. Neither side could gain any sort of momentum as they went kill for kill and block for block. The set featured a dozen ties on the way up to a 17-17 score.

Midland went on a three-point run behind a block from Williams and Lauryn Samuelson, an ace by Jessie Moss, and an attack error by the Flames. That gap was enough for them to keep CSM at bay as took the second set, 25-22.

The Flames started to heat up in the third set. After the Warriors tied the set at 12-12, CSM went on a 10-3 run to put itself in control. After getting to set point though, they nearly let Midland back into the set. The Warriors scored five unanswered to make it 24-23 before a kill by the Flames ended the set, 25-23.

Midland's run at the end of set three fueled them in the fourth. After trading points up to a 5-5 tie, MU went on a 9-0 run to take control of the set. Another run of 8-1 made it 22-7. Kills from Jacki Apel and Moss, with a serving error by the Flames in between, sealed the match for the Warriors inside the Lied Fitness Center.

For the match, Midland set a new season-high with 24 total blocks. Its previous highwater mark was 17, set back on September 20 against the same CSM team. Leading the way at the net defensively was Abbey Ringler who had a solo block to go along with 13 block assists. The 14-block night for the junior middle is a new career single-game high.

Also getting a hand in on the action were Lauryn Samuelson with 9 blocks, Jacki Apel with 8, Lauren Williams with 6, and Jessie Moss with 6.

In the back row, Delanie Vallinch had a match-high 15 digs defensively. Brena Mackling joined her in double-digits with 11 while Kailyn Scott picked up 9 digs.

Offensively, it was a three-headed attack with Ringler, Apel, and Moss all reaching double figures. Ringler had 14 to lead the way while Apel finished one behind with 13 and Moss had 11.

The attack was coordinated by Mackling and Brielle Power. The duo helped Midland to a .162 hitting percentage. Mackling had 25 assists to lead the team while Power assisted on 15 kills.

"I was really proud of our team tonight. We played a really, really, good CSM that was coming off one the biggest wins they've had [3-1 over No. 1 Concordia on Saturday]," commented head coach Paul Giesselmann. "We've seen our team get better in practice. In the last couple of road matches, we did some good things, so we knew this was in them. To finally see them play a complete match was huge for them. Our serve, along with our block and defense were huge tonight."

Midland (13-9, 9-5 GPAC) will look to build upon its momentum this weekend when it takes on Doane (7-17, 5-9 GPAC). The match, which will be preceded by Senior Day, is set for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 28 in Fremont.