Sioux Center, Iowa — The Dordt Defenders secured a sweep of the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers on Saturday in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round and advanced to the Final Site in Sioux City, Iowa beginning play there on Tuesday, April 28.
Dordt grabbed a 16-11 lead in set one and appeared to be clicking as MidAmerica Nazarene burned both of its timeouts. A 4-0 run by the visitors cut it to 16-15, forcing Dordt to use its first timeout. The Pioneers tied it at 18-18 on a kill by Nikoleta Kandic. The Pioneers eventually took a 20-19 lead but Dordt scored on a service error and then got a kill from Corrina Timmermans to re-take the lead. The Defenders kept the lead at two at 23-21 and 24-22 before winning on an Alli Timmermans kill for a 25-23 final.
Back to back kills by Brenna Krommendyk put Dordt up 2-1 in set two and the Defenders were still up two at 13-11 before back to back points made it 15-11. The Defenders were able to keep MidAmerica Nazarene at arms length the rest of the set and won 25-17 while scoring their last two points on kills by Corrina Timmermans.
Dordt never trailed in set three after taking a 2-1 lead and rolled to a 25-20 win. Alli Timmermans scored four of Dordt’s last five points to fight off a MidAmerica rally and Jessi De Jager and Jori Bronner teamed up for a kill to secure the final point.
Alli Timmermans led Dordt with 13 kills and Corrina Timmermans had 12.
Jessi De Jager accounted for nine kills with four block assists and Brenna Krommendyk had seven kills with three block assists.
Megan Raszler had 26 assists and Corina Beimers had 13.
Hannah Connelly accounted for 22 digs.
Dordt had one service receive error and just four service errors.
The Defenders had a .364 kill efficiency and accounted for six blocks.
Dordt will learn its pool assignment for the NAIA National Championship on Monday, April 19.
