No. 18 Warriors Take Down Mount Marty in Four Sets

YANKTON, S.D. –No. 18-ranked Midland University earned a hard-fought four-set victory over Mount Marty University in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) matchup on Wednesday night. The Warriors started strong, winning the first two sets with scores of 25-14 and 25-16. Mount Marty battled back to take the third set 25-20, but the Warriors responded with a dominant 25-18 fourth-set win to close out the match.

In the opening set, the two sides were even through the first 10 points. Back-to-back points by Midland started an 8-1 run that tilted the set its direction, 13-6. After a few exchanged points, the Warriors went on another long rally, closing out the Lancers with a 7-1 run to win 25-14.

Midland hit .310 in the opening frame while limiting Mount Marty to a negative hitting mark of -.029. The Lancers were stuffed four times at the net and committed three other hitting errors with a pair of missed serves as well. The Warriors were led by Brooklynn Snyder and Claire Johnson who had three kills each in the first set.

After falling behind 10-6 in the second set, Midland clawed its way back even at 13-13 amid an 11-0 run. Leading 22-13 after the long sustained rally, the Warriors made quick work of the Lancers and took the 25-16 win. Snyder had a huge set on the attack with seven kills while Jacki Apel added four for Midland as it hit .293. Mount Marty was in the positive with its attack percentage with a .025 with nine kills and eight errors. Four of those errors were courtesy of the Warriors' block.

The third set saw the Lancers work to avoid the block and in doing so, they were tied with the Warriors early on and then used a big six-point rally to pull back even late. Tied at 16-16, Mount Marty scored the next two points and kept the lead the rest of the way. After the Warriors pulled within a point at 21-20, the Lancers rallied with four straight points to take the third set, 25-20.

Midland had its lowest hitting mark of the night with a .195 on the attack while Mount Marty had its best. Behind 13 kills and only 4 errors, it hit .243 on its home floor.

Not wanting to extend the match past a fourth set, Midland regained control in the fourth with a quick 5-1 run. Following a stretch where neither side could sustain a rally, the Warriors got back on track with a four-point run that broke a 9-9 tie. As Mount Marty battled back to within a point once more, 19-18, Midland closed out the set and the match with six straight points to win 25-18.

Apel and Johnson led the way in the fourth with four kills each while Snyder added three. The Warriors hit a match-best. 379 in the final frame while limiting the Lancers to .036. Sydney Guthard picked up a pair of service aces in the set while the Midland defense at the net added three more blocks.

For the game, the Warriors hit .286 while holding the Lancers to .072 on the attack. As a team, Midland had 12 total blocks. With Cameran Jansky having a big hand with at least six block assists.

Brooklynn Snyder and Jacki Apel both reached double figures in kills with 16 and 15, respectively. Claire Johnson added 7 while Abbey Ringler and Lauren Jones chipped in 6. Divvying up the offense were Brena Mackling and Stella Kuehl. Mackling had 21 set assists while Kuehl finished with 24.

Delanie Vallinch had 21 digs to lead the back row of defensive specialists. Kuehl added 8 while Snyder, Mackling, and Kailyn Scott all had 6 digs on the night.

Up next, Midland (13-8, 9-2 GPAC) will travel to face No. 1-ranked Northwestern (22-0, 11-0 GPAC) this weekend. The teams will take the floor inside the Bultman Center on Saturday, October 19 in Orange City, Iowa. First serve is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.