Weekend Showcase Opens with Split for No. 6 Warriors

LA CROSSE, Wis. – It was a doubleheader for No. 6 Midland University on Friday as it opened play in the Viterbo V-Hawk Invitational. The Warriors took the court against No. 5 Viterbo University to start the day, sweeping the host school (25-20, 25-23, 25-12). In their second match of the day, No. 11 Missouri Baptist University edged past the Warriors in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 25-21, 30-28).

Midland 3, Viterbo 0

It was a rematch of a quarterfinal match in last year's NAIA National Championship to begin the day as Midland took on Viterbo. In the matchup of two top-ten teams, the Warriors got in front early with a 25-20 win in the opening set. They did so with solid play on the attack by Brooklynn Snyder and Lauren Jones. The duo each had four kills at the team hit .194 behind the coordination from setters Brena Mackling and Stella Kuehl.

Midland had its best-hitting mark of the day in the second set. As they moved up two sets to none, it hit .250 while limiting Viterbo to a .179 percentage. The Warriors' middle attackers led the way. Abbey Ringler had a strong set with six kills while Jacki Apel had four kills. The duo led a defensive charge at the net as Viterbo was blocked three times and forced into three other attack errors as MU won 25-23.

The errors compounded in the third for the V-Hawks. They had seven total hitting errors, hitting into the Warriors' block three times. Offensively, Midland went back to their outside hitters with Snyder picking four kills and Jones adding three. Viterbo was saddled with serving miscues throughout with eight missed serves.

For the match, Abbey Ringler and Lauren Jones paced the team with 10 kills each. Right behind them were Brooklynn Snyder with 8 and Jacki Apel with 7. As a team, the Warriors hit .227 on the attack and had 8 total blocks. Ringler had 6 block assists while Jones was in on 3 stops at the point of attack.

In the back row, Delanie Vallinch led the group of defensive specialists with 15 digs. Delainey Cast had 7 digs while Kailyn Scott finished with 6. At the service line, Midland had 6 aces. Brena Macklin had three while adding 21 set assists. Stella Kuehl had 11 set assists to go with 5 digs.

"We made a lot of silly mistakes in game one. Both physically and mentally, but we settled in and played much better in the next two games," commented head coach Paul Giesselmann. "Our serving and passing was the difference. Brena had a great serving match and we got our middles [Ringler and Apel] going."

Missouri Baptist 3, Midland 1

The final match of the night inside the Varsity Athletics Center featured another ranked matchup as No. 6 Midland faced No. 11 Missouri Baptist. MBU began its day with a tough four-set loss to Corban.

With a match under each of their belts, the two ranked squads entertained the fans who stayed for the last match of the day. After falling behind 3-0, the Warriors rallied back in the opening set behind a balanced attack and solid blocking. The turning point came during a 13-4 run that put Midland up 22-14. Down the stretch, MBU attempted a comeback with a 7-1 rally but a ball handling error followed but a service ace from Sydney Guthard closed out the set, 25-21.

As it did in the first set, Missouri Baptist jumped out in front early with a 9-3 start to the second. Midland battled back to tie the score at 14-14 and took a 21-19 lead down the backstretch. The Spartans got into an advantageous rotation and moved back in front. After trading points to get to a 23-23 tie, MBU took advantage of a pair of miscues by MU to even the match with a 25-23 win.

Early offensive struggles plagued the Warriors once more in the third as they fell behind 7-2. They dug themselves back into the contest with short rallies and limiting the Spartans' chances. A three-point run led to a tie at 20-20 in the all-important third set. A 5-1 ending for MBU closed out the set 25-21 and then took a 2-1 lead in the match.

In the fourth, the Warriors settled in earlier than the previous sets. Following eight ties in the early going, Midland went on an 11-4 run to seize control 21-15. Missouri Baptist regained its composure as it chipped away at the lead. An 8-2 run knotted the sides at 23-23.

Midland had three chances at set point but was denied each time. On the Spartans' third chance to close out the match, they did just that with back-to-back kills for the 30-28 win.

For the match, the Warriors were limited to a .136 hitting percentage while their counterparts hit .166 on the attack. Both sides put up a solid effort at the net defensively. MU had 14 blocks while MBU finished with 11.

Leading the attack for Midland were Brooklynn Snyder and Claire Johnson on the outside with 9 kills each. Abbey Ringler had 8 kills followed by 7 kills from both Jacki Apel and Lauren Jones.

Apel was a force in the middle with 10 total blocks. Johnson had a hand in on 6 blocks while Ringler and Jones both had 4 block assists.

As a team, Midland had 71 digs. Delanie Vallinch paced the back row with 22 digs. Joining her in double-digits was Brena Mackling with 10. Others with solid dig performances were Kailyn Scott with 9 and Delainey Cast with 8.

"We had stretches of high-level volleyball but we have to learn to start games better and close them out when we have chances," said head coach Paul Giesselmann. "Tomorrow is another opportunity for us to keep getting better."

Midland (2-4) will get another chance for a quality win on Saturday with a match against No. 12 Corban (3-1) who won both of its matches on Friday. The battle of the Warriors is set for 10:00 a.m. inside the Varsity Athletics Center in La Crosse.