The Northwestern College volleyball team rallied from 0-2 deficit to come back and defeat Midland in five sets (23-25, 19-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-10) in a conference match played tonight at the Bultman Center. Tonight’s epic rally came on senior night where the Raiders five seniors were recognized prior to the varsity match.
The Raiders improve to 11-2 in the GPAC, 13-2 overall, with three matches remaining in the regular season. Midland’s three-match win streak ends as the Warriors drop to 6-6 in the conference, 7-7 overall.
Makenzie Fink came up huge for the victors, putting away 17 kills in just 33 swings, hitting nearly .500 against Midland. Anna Wedel compiled 12 kills and 11 digs, adding another double-double to her impressive career resume. Emily Van Ginkel totaled 11 kills and five blocks, many coming in crucial moments in the final two sets.
Hitting under .200 in losing the first two sets, Northwestern hit nearly .400 during the final three sets, including .500 in a 25-18 set three win that helped turn the momentum in the Raiders favor. For the match, Northwestern had the edge in hitting percentage ( .271 – .222), blocks (13-10), digs (64-63) and ace serves (8-6).
The drama of the Raiders improbable comeback reached its peak during the final moments of the fourth set. Faced with match point (24-23) and Midland in control of the serve, Raider setter Lacey Reitz connected with Fink for a successful attack on the right side to tie the set at 24. A Warriors point followed, giving the visitors another match point and serve, only to have Reitz set up Van Ginkel for a kill and tie the score at 25. With Taylor Meyer serving for the hosts, Northwestern closed out the fourth set on consecutive blocks by the combination of Van Ginkel, Reitz and Wedel to send the match into a fifth set.
Set five was tight early and featured seven ties, three lead changes. Tied for the final time at eight, Wedel put away back-to-back kills to give the Raiders the lead for good. Leading 10-9, Northwestern scored five of the final six points, getting blocks from Fink and Macay Van’t Hul followed by another kill by Wedel.
Reitz put up 45 assists and eight digs while Emily Strasser led the backrow with 24 digs. Van’t Hul put down a match-high seven blocks.
Midland was led by Taliyah Flores with 20 kills and Maggie Hiatt added 19 successful attacks.
