Mount Vernon, Iowa – Nebraska Wesleyan got the weekend off to a stellar start on Friday (Sept. 21) as they posted two shutout victories at the Cornell College Volleyball Classic. NWU swept University of Wisconsin-River Falls, 3-0, then closed out the day with a 3-0 sweep over Grinnell College.
With the two victories the Prairie Wolves move to 5-6 overall. They will play two more matches on Saturday facing Augustana and the host school Cornell College.
NWU was dominant in their opening win over UW-River Falls winning 25-19, 25-18, 25-9. The Prairie Wolves limited UW-River Falls (7-8) to just a .082 hitting percentage while hitting .252 themselves.
UW-River Falls had just as many errors as kills in the opening set when the Prairie Wolves got the 25-19 lead and led nearly the entire way. In set two, the two teams were tied nine times with the lead changing hands three times before NWU earned the victory. The Prairie Wolves pounded out 12 kills in the third set with just two errors to win 25-9.
Cora Svoboda and Hanna Bellinghausen both had nine kills to lead NWU.
Kierra Harder had a team-high 18 digs and
Cassidy Plooster dished out 32 assists.
In the second match of the day, the Prairie Wolves swept Grinnell in scores of 25-11, 26-24, 25-18. The most competitive set was the second set with six lead changes and 12 ties.
NWU had set point in the second set at 24-23, but a ball handling error tied it at 24-24. Back to back attack errors by the Pioneers allowed the Prairie Wolves to score two points and win the set. Grinnell had nine attack errors in the third set as NWU led the entire way.
Once again it was Bellinghausen that led the way for NWU as she had 12 kills and a .348 hitting percentage. Harder and Svoboda each added nine kills. Svoboda had nine kills on only 14 attempts with zero errors as she hit .643 and finished with six block assists. Plooster dished out 32 assists and just missed a double-double with nine digs.
Lizzie Saale led the way with 13 digs.
As a team, the Prairie Wolves hit .259 with 43 total kills.
