The Midland Warriors advanced to the GPAC Semifinals with a 3-1 win over the Dordt Defenders on Saturday night in Fremont, Nebraska and put the Defenders in a state of limbo as post-season play continues.
Set one was tight through out with neither team mustering more than a four point lead. It was the Warriors who grabbed the four point lead at 17-13 after a Brooke Fredrickson kill but Dordt answered with a four point run with two of the four points coming on blocks and the other two on unforced attack errors. The Defenders grabbed a lead at 19-18 and led 21-20 before Midland used a timeout Back to back points put Midland on top and in control and the Warriors eventually squeezed by for a 25-23 win.
Set two was tight up to a 15-14 Midland and Dordt trailed 19-17 after Karsyn Winterfeld got a kill to stop a Midland run. The Warriors were not to be denied in the set though as they scored the next five points and won 25-18 after Jessi De Jager momentarily stopped the run at 24-18.
Dordt revived itself with a 10-0 run to start set three but the Warriors managed to stop the momentum and crawled all the way back to within 20-18. A service error put Dordt up 21-18 and the Warriors got no closer than three the rest of the set and Winterfeld ended it with a kill.
Thoughts of a comeback were short lived as the Warriors scored back to back points to go up 6-3 and the lead quickly bulged to 17-6. Midland continued to control the set and won the match with the 25-13 victory.
