LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska Wesleyan volleyball team made it a successful night in their Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference home opener Tuesday (Sept. 19) as the Prairie Wolves took down Central College, 3-1, to earn their first IIAC match of the season. NWU won in scores of 25-16, 25-16, 21-25, 25-22.
With the victory, the Prairie Wolves even their IIAC record at 1-1 and move to 7-3 overall. The Dutch fall to 6-7 overall and also are now at 1-1 in conference play.
Nebraska Wesleyan looked strong to open the match, bouncing back from their disappointing IIAC opener last week.
NWU reeled off six straight points in the first set to build up a 16-9 advantage and they would roll the rest of the set for the 25-16 win.
Sidney Mell closed out the set with kills on three of the last four points.
In set two, the Prairie Wolves trailed 7-4 early but responded after a timeout to go on a 9-2 run to take a 13-9 lead. They kept extending the lead throughout the set and closed the win with a combo block from
Kelsie Stovall and
Karrie Sestak.
Central didn't go away easy as the Dutch played very well in set three to earn the win. They led by as many as six points (19-13) midway through the set then withstood a late NWU rally to force a fourth set.
The fourth set also started off in the advantage of Central as they led 10-7 early on. NWU battled back and took a 16-13 lead on three straight kills from
Cora Svoboda. The set would then be tied five more times until
Kierra Harder broke a 21-21 tie with a kill. Svoboda and
Hannah Bellinghausen teamed up for a block and an error by the Dutch forced match point. Central extended the set with one more point, but Harder sealed the win with a kill.
Three Prairie Wolves players reached double figures in kills as NWU had 60 total kills in the match with a .222 hitting percentage.
Sidney Mell led the way posting a double-double of 16 kills and 10 digs.
Karrie Sestak had a terrific night with 14 kills and 0 errors, hitting .636 for the match. She also added 5 block assists. The final player with double digit kills was
Kierra Harder with 11.
Kelsie Stovall took over the setting duties and responded with a double-double of 47 assists and 11 digs.
Lizzie Saale had a match-high 26 digs to lead the Prairie Wolves defense.
NWU will now prepare for a trip to Wisconsin to participate in the NACC-IIAC Crossover tournament. The Prairie Wolves play four matches over the weekend, starting Friday versus the host school Concordia University (Wis.).
