ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – Nebraska Wesleyan completed a successful opening weekend to the season by going 3-1 at the Bethel Invite on Sept. 2-3 in Arden Hills, Minn. NWU defeated Wheaton College and Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday to complete the invite.
Nebraska Wesleyan needed five sets to get past Wheaton in thrilling fashion. The Prairie Wolves won the first two sets 25-17, 25-15 then Wheaton won the next two 26-24, 25-23 before NWU sealed the win with a 15-10 win in the deciding fifth set.
Five different players had double digit kill performances for the Prairie Wolves who had 60 total kills in the match.
Malory Dahl led the way with a double-double of 14 kills and 19 digs.
Kierra Harder had 12 and
Callie Meyer had 11 kills.
Karrie Sestak and
Hannah Bellinghausen both had 10 kills, with Sestak hitting .500 on the day.
Taylor Crandall had another double-double with 52 assists and 13 digs, while
Kennedy Hegert led the way with 31 digs.
In the deciding 5
th set, NWU got out to a quick 3-0 lead, before Wheaton rallied to take a 6-5 lead. From there, NWU regained the lead at 7-6 and wouldn't trail again. The final two points came on errors by Wheaton.
The second match of the day was much easier for the Prairie Wolves as they swept past UW-Superior 3-0 in scores of 25-18, 25-19, 25-17.
NWU hit .330 as a team, compared to .180 for UW-S. The Prairie Wolves had 40 total kills once again led by Dahl with 14 kills. She had 14 kills and just one error to hit .500 on the day. Crandal dished out 36 assists and Hegert had 17 digs to lead the team in that category.
Nebraska Wesleyan will return to Minnesota next weekend to take part in the St. Catherine Invitational.
