ORANGE CITY, Iowa – The No. 14-ranked Northwestern College volleyball team (19-7, 9-7 GPAC) is set to travel to No. 15-ranked Dakota Wesleyan (22-8, 10-6 GPAC) on Saturday for the quarterfinals matchup in the 2021 Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) women’s volleyball tournament.
The Raiders enter the conference tournament as the No. 5-seed with a 9-7 conference mark, while the Tigers enter as the No. 4-seed with a 10-6 league record. The two teams split the regular season series, both teams winning on their home courts.
“Dakota Wesleyan has a strong team with one of the premier hitters in the country on their team,” notes head coach Kyle Van Den Bosch. “They are a very experienced team so they don’t get rattled very easily. We anticipate it being a great battle.”
Regular Season Meetings
The two teams first met on September 15, as Dakota Wesleyan took the match in straight sets. Olivia Schaub (Jr., Scottsbluff, Neb./Gering) and Bekah Horstman (Sr., Pella, Iowa/Pella Christian) both notched eight kills to lead the team. The Raiders offense struggled in the first meeting, but they would make the needed corrections for the second meeting!
The Raiders welcomed Dakota Wesleyan to the newly renovated Bultman Center for the first ever contest in the renovated gym on September 29. In front of a packed and eager Raider crowd, Northwestern downed the Tigers 3-1 to hand DWU their first conference loss of the season. In a complete flip of the script from the meeting just two weeks prior, four Raider attackers notched 10+ kills, led by Alysen Dexter (Fr., Urbandale, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) who had a match-high 16 kills. Macay Van’t Hul (So., Rock Valley, Iowa/Western Christian) recorded 14, Katie Peters (Jr., Le Mars, Iowa/Gehlen Catholic) had 13, and Horstman had 12. The Raiders went from a .138 hitting percentage in the first meeting, to a .256 hitting percentage in the four-set victory.
In the offensive explosion, both Jadeyn Schutt (Jr., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) and Olivia Granstra (So., Sheldon, Iowa/Western Christian) both collected 30+ assists, with 33 and 30, respectively. Emily Strasser (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D./Sioux Falls Christian) also had a match-high 26 digs in the win.
