SHERMAN, Texas – It was a successful opening weekend for the Nebraska Wesleyan volleyball team winning three of their four matches after taking two matches on Saturday at the Austin College Invite.  NWU rolled past Centenary 3-0 during the morning, then took down the host school Austin College 3-1 on Saturday afternoon to cap the weekend.
 
NWU (3-1) was totally dominant in the win over Centenary to start the day.  The Prairie Wolves swept past the Ladies 25-12, 25-16, 25-18 in straight sets.  Centenary had a negative hitting percentage for the match hitting -.065 as a team, including a -.290 percentage in set one.
 
During the opening set, Centenary had three kills and 12 attack errors in the 31 total attempts. NWU took advantage pounding out 10 kills of their own to roll to the easy win.  The Prairie Wolves then improved their hitting percentage in the next two sets getting a combined 24 kills among several different players while hitting .253 for the match.
 
Hannah Bellinghausen led the team with eight kills and a .467 hitting percentage.  Cora Svoboda added seven kills with Whitney Jensen and Ana Thacker each getting six kills.  Jensen had six kills in ten attempts and Thacker had six in 11 attempts with no errors.  Cassidy Plooster dished out a team-high 17 assists and Kelsie Stovall had 11 digs.
 
Facing the host school in the final match of the day, the Prairie Wolves had a much more competitive match but still came away with the 3-1 win in scores of 25-19, 24-26, 25-21, 25-20.
 
Three different NWU players reached double digits in kills, led by Bellinghausen with 12.  Nicole Gonzales posted a double-double with 10 kills and 24 digs, while Jensen just missed a double-double with 10 kills and nine digs.  Anna Gottsch had her second double-double of the weekend with 24 assists and 15 digs.  Stovall led the defensive effort with 28 digs.
 
With the victories over the weekend, NWU head coach Rayna Cain surpassed the 100-career victory total during her tenure with the Prairie Wolves.  She becomes the third coach in program history to win over 100 matches.