Volleyball Fights Tough in Loss to No. 1 Midland
Fremont, NE - The Hastings College volleyball team knew it had its hands full with NAIA No. 1 Midland University losing to the Warriors 20-25, 22-25, 17-25 on Wednesday night.
Set one saw Midland take control early and built a healthy lead at 24-12 but the Lady Broncos would not go quitely. Jaisee Stinson (JR/Omaha, NE) would connect with Emily Krolikowski (SR/Cairo, NE) for the kill followed by a double block from Makenna Asher (SO/Hastings, NE) and Miriam Miller (FR/Lincoln, NE) to make it 24-14. Then a Sydney Mullin (SR/North Platte, NE) kill followed by a bad set from Hope Leimbach and a Asher service ace made it 24-18. Then a Mullin kill followed by a solo block from Grace Branson (FR/Lawrence, KS) and Hastings had closed the gap to 24-20. But Midland would get a kill from Taliyah Flores to end the 8-0 run and take set one.
After falling behind 7-4 in set two, Hastings would begin to find its groove starting with an attack error from Leimbach. Asher then found Krolikowski for back-to-back kills to tie the set 7-7 before Mullin put Hastings in front with a kill.
The Warriors worked their way back to an 11-9 lead but back-to-back double blocks from Miriam Miller and Mullin tied things right back up at 11. The teams then traded blows until HC took a timeout trailing 19-18. Hastings then went on a quick 4-0 run to take a 22-19 lead highlighted by a Mullin kill and a Kamri Adler (JR/Hastings, NE) service ace forcing a Midland timeout.
A Jessie Moss kill and then a rotation error brought Midland right back into the set and they took full advantage going on to win the set 25-22.
Midland then took control of set three early on en route to the sweep.
One thing that showed up for the Lady Broncos was the front line finishing the game with 10 blocks compared to seven for Midland. Monroe and Miller each finished with six total blocks.
Krolikowski led the way with 11 kills while hitting .250. Mullin added seven kills while hitting .167. Asher and Stinson each finished with 12 assists while Miller led the team with 12 digs.
For the match, Midland hit .220 while holding Hastings to .099. Brooke Fredrickson led Midland with 11 kills while hitting .381.
Hastings falls to 11-5 (2-2) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Sept. 18 as No. 19 Concordia comes to town with first serve set for 3:00 pm inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
