Volleyball Stuns NAIA No. 3 Midland in Five Set Thriller
Hastings, NE - It was dig pink night as the Hastings College volleyball team welcomed NAIA No. 3 Midland to town for what proved to be an exciting match as HC came away with the 25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 18-25, 15-9 on Wednesday night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
Hastings came out looking to make up for its loss at Mount Marty and started off well getting a kill from Grace Branson (FR/Lawrence, KS) followed by two Branson and Sydney Mullin (SR/North Platte, NE) double blocks to give the Lady Broncos a quick 3-0 lead.
The Warriors then came back with five straight points and the match was on.
The first set stayed tight until it was 19-19 and then Hastings made a run started by a Mullin kill. Then Branson picked up a kill forcing a Warrior timeout with HC leading 21-19.
That didn't slow Hastings down as Mullin came out with a solo block followed by an attack error from Midland's Taliyah Flores to make it 23-19. Hastings made sure that lead stayed safe winning set one 25-21.
The Lady Broncos looked poised to go up 2-0 on Midland leading set two 19-15 but the Warriors went on a 7-to-1 run which helped them to even things back up.
Midland then jumped out to a quick 7-4 lead in set three but Hastings showed some grit as Dacey Sealey (FR/Hastings, NE) picked up a kill. After an attack error by Midland, Ava Lovitt (FR/Beatrice, NE) connected on a service ace to tie things up 7-7.
With HC trailing just 9-8, an attack error by Midland's Lauryn Samuelson started a 7-1 in favor of the Lady Broncos. Makenna Asher (SO/Hastings, NE) teamed up with Mullin for a double block followed by a kill from Miriam Miller (FR/Lincoln, NE) and another Warrior error had Hastings up 12-9. HC made it 15-10 behind kills from Miller and Mullin plus a Flores attack error.
From there, Hastings made sure to keep its distance and took set three 25-18. Hastings hit .433 during set three.
After Midland won set four 25-18, it would all come down to set five where Hastings dominated from start to finish.
A Warrior service error started things off in set five and then two straight attack errors by the Warriors' Cortlyn Schaefer made it 3-0. Then Branson and Mullin teamed up again to block Schaefer's attack for the 4-0 lead forcing a Midland timeout.
Now up 5-2, Asher would go back to the right side with Branson for another kill and then Asher teamed up with Amani Monroe (SR/Colorado Springs, CO) for the double block plus another service ace, this time from Jaisee Stinson (JR/Omaha, NE) made it 8-2 as Midland was forced to use its second timeout of set five.
From there the teams pretty much traded points until Asher went back outside to Branson for the kill to end the match as Hastings win set five 15-9.
For the match, Hastings hit .261 while Midland was held to .205 which is well below its season average of .248.
Branson led the way offensively with 15 kills while hitting .310. Mullin added 12 kills while hitting .367 to go along with her eight total blocks and Miller also finished with 12 kills hitting .265 as she finished with a double-double as she also recorded 12 digs. Monroe added eight kills while hitting an astounding .727. Flores led the way for Midland with a game high 21 kills as she hit .255 for the match. Asher led the team with 32 assists and she also finished wtih eight kills.
Hastings improves to 13-8 (4-5) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Oct. 9 as Briar Cliff comes to town with first serve set for 3:00 pm inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
