INDIANOLA, Iowa – Nebraska Wesleyan closed out the regular season portion of their inaugural year in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 3-1 victory over Simpson College Tuesday night (Oct. 25) in Indianola, Iowa.
The win for the Prairie Wolves snapped their four-match losing streak and clinched the No. 4 seed in the IIAC Postseason Volleyball Tournament that will be held Nov. 4-5 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. NWU will face the No. 5 seed Central College in the first round on Nov. 4 at 4:30 pm. The Prairie Wolves tied for third in the IIAC regular season standings with Coe College, but the Kohawks earned the tie-breaker after winning over NWU on Saturday.
In the match against Simpson, the Prairie Wolves won set one 25-15 before the Storm rallied back to win the second set 25-19. NWU went on to earn 25-16, 25-22 wins in the next two sets to clinch the match.
With the first set tied at 9-9, the Prairie Wolves went on a big run outscoring Simpson 8-1 making the score 17-10. During that stretch, Simpson committed five hitting errors. NWU sealed the set win on an ace by
Karrie Sestak.
Set two was very similar as Simpson led 4-1 early before NWU scored nine straight points to take a 10-4 advantage. This time, Simpson rallied and went on a run of their own scoring the final seven points to win set two after it being tied 18-18.
Nebraska Wesleyan never trailed in the third set after taking a 3-2 lead as they earned the 25-16 win. The fourth set was much more competitive and saw Simpson hold a 21-19 lead late in the set. A hitting error and kills by
Hannah Bellinghausen and
Kierra Harder gave NWU the 22-21 lead forcing a timeout.
Carly Bostock added a kill to make the scored 23-21 and after the teams exchanged points
Malory Dahl gave NWU the win at 25-22.
Dahl led NWU posting a double-double with 14 kills, a .353 hitting percentage and 12 digs.
Kierra Harder had nine kills, while
Hannah Bellinghausen totaled eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage.
Taylor Crandall dished out 35 assists.
Lizzie Saale recorded a team-high 16 digs
