No. 18 Warriors Fall to Waldorf in Five Sets

FOREST CITY, Iowa – No. 18 Midland University dropped a hard-fought match to Waldorf University on Saturday afternoon, falling in five sets (20-25, 25-16, 12-25, 25-14, 15-11) in Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) action.

Midland and Waldorf were evenly matched in the opening set, with three ties through the first 10 points. The Warriors went on a 6-0 run to take a 10-5 lead and maintained the advantage over the next few points. Waldorf responded with a five-point run to tie the set at 15-15. However, a brief rally by Midland gave them enough breathing room, and they escaped with a 25-20 win.

In the second set, Waldorf had the early edge, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The gap widened after a 10-1 run, making it 16-6. Facing a deep deficit, Midland was unable to recover and dropped the set 25-16.

The third set saw a more focused and energized Warriors squad, as they took control early with a 9-3 lead. After Waldorf cut the deficit to three, Midland responded with a four-point run, extending their lead to 17-10. The Warriors closed the set on a seven-point run, claiming a dominant 25-12 victory.

Momentum shifted back to Waldorf in the fourth set, as they built a commanding 16-7 lead midway through. Following a few exchanges of points, Waldorf used a five-point rally to stretch the lead to 22-11. The teams traded points the rest of the way, and Waldorf secured a 25-14 win, evening the match at two sets apiece.

In the decisive fifth set, Waldorf struck first with two quick points and built an 8-6 lead at the switch. The lead extended to 11-6, and Midland was unable to regain control of service, with the teams alternating points to a 15-11 win for Waldorf.

For the match, Midland hit .211 on the attack with 63 kills on 175 swings while Waldorf hit .185 with 51 kills on 168 attempts. Leading the way for the Warriors with double-figure kills each were Jacki Apel, Brooklynn Snyder, and Lauren Jones. Apel had a match and season-high 18 kills while Snyder added 16 and Jones had 10. Orchestrating the attack were Brena Mackling and Stella Kuehl. The setter tandem had 27 and 20 set assists, respectively.

Defensively, Delanie Vallinch had 31 digs to pace the Warriors from her libero position. Joining her with double-digit digs were Delainey Cast with 14 and Kailyn Scott with 13. At the net, Midland had 7 blocks as a team. Getting a hand in on four blocks was Apel while Abbey Ringler had three block assists.

"This was an extremely disappointing loss. We continue to be a very inconsistent team and today it bit us," said head coach Paul Giesselmann after the setback. "As a coach, I have to figure out how to get this team to play with energy and a sense of urgency for a complete match. When you lose sets [by scores of] 25-16 and 25-14 to an unranked opponent, you're just not locked in as a team. We need a great week of practice because we have a tough opponent on Friday night."

Midland (10-8, 6-2 GPAC) will look to rebound from its weekend split with a pair of home matches next weekend. The Warriors will take on Morningside (17-6, 5-3 GPAC) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. before a Saturday afternoon tilt with Briar Cliff (6-14, 0-8 GPAC) on Saturday. Both matches will be preceded by a junior varsity match inside the Wikert Event Center in Fremont, Nebraska.