SHERMAN, Texas – Nebraska Wesleyan started the season by splitting a pair of matches on the opening day of the Austin College Invite on Friday (Aug. 30) at Sherman, Texas. NWU defeated St. Thomas University 3-1 in the first match of the day, then fell 3-1 to Letourneau University later in the evening.
The Prairie Wolves will close out the weekend trip on Saturday with two more matches facing Centenary and the host school Austin College.
In the first match of the year, the Prairie Wolves dropped the first set 19-25 then came back to take the next three in scores of 25-20, 25-18. 25-15. NWU struggled in the opening set hitting just .111 in set one. However, they quickly put that behind them and hit an astounding .375 in set two with 18 kills and only three assists. They finished the match with 57 total kills, hitting .261 as a team.
Four players reached double figures in kills, led by newcomer
Ana Thacker with 15 kills and a swing percentage of .583.
Whitney Jensen had 11 kills with only two errors, while
Hannah Bellinghausen and
Cora Svoboda each had 10 kills.
Anna Gottsch posted a double-double with 23 assists and 14 digs and
Leah Sommer dished out 20 assists.
Kelsie Stovall led the Prairie Wolves with 27 digs.
Only one St. Thomas player finished with double figures in kills as they had 40 as a team.
Match two of the day was opposite of the first match with NWU winning the opening set 25-20, then LeTourneau took the next three sets in scores of 25-23, 25-21, 25-20.
The Prairie Wolves finished with 30 attack errors as LeTourneau challenged NWU at the net with 11 total blocks. NWU also had 10 reception errors, five block errors and four service errors giving their opponents 49 points on errors.
Bellinghausen led the NWU attack with 13 total kills in the match.
Nicole Gonzales recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs. Gottsch dished out 24 assists and Stovall had a team-high 31 digs.
