NAIA Roundup: Hastings Sweeps Doane in GPAC Play

Berk Brown

September 6, 2018 @ 02:23 PM

Madison VanHousen (Hampton) of Doane goes high off the block of Emily Lenners (Freeman), left, and Lucy Skoch (Hastings St. Cecilia), right, during Wednesday night’s GPAC match. (Photo by Berk Brown)

HASTINGS – It might not have been pretty, but any GPAC win looks pretty good at the end of the day.

Hastings College, ranked #11, was able to sweep #22 Doane 25-21, 25-20, 25-21 on Wednesday night in a match where neither team seemed to be able to find its groove the whole evening.

“I thought it was a pretty ugly match,” Hastings College coach Matt Buttermore told the Grand Island Independent. “I think both sides could have played better. We made enough plays to win. We worked really hard. I was worried about the long rallies. We haven’t had that in a competitive setting for awhile. I thought we did a good job of making them earn their points in the long rallies.”

Hastings, 5-0, hit just .162 on the night while Doane, 3-2, finished at .092.

Matti Dabovich and Lucy Skoch (Hastings St. Cecilia) each had seven kills for Hastings while Casey Krolikowski (Centura) had three kills, four assists, five aces, 12 digs and two blocks. Leslie Fox (St. Paul) had 12 digs and Cassidy Ostrand (Nebraska Christian) had 10 while Clare Hamburger (Hastings St. Cecilia) had 11 assists and seven digs and Claira Thede (St. Paul) had 14 assists and three digs.

For Doane, Madison VanHousen (Hampton) had nine kills, 10 digs and three aces and Allison Kuenle (North Platte) had seven kills, eight digs and three blocks. Erin Warren (Papillion-LaVista South) had a match-high 13 digs.

Here is a look at other NAIA action from last night.

Midland University, ranked #8, improved to 9-2 on the season with a 25-17, 25-17, 26-24 win over Morningside, which dropped to 5-5 with the loss.

Maggie Hiatt (Louisville) had 12 kills and Jenny Bair added 10 and three service aces for Midland while Taylor Petersen (Auburn) added eight kills and Jessica Peters (Papillion-LaVista) and Priscilla O’Dowd (Papillion-LaVista) each added six. Peters also had 30 assists and 21 digs while Mackenzie Wecker (O’Neill St. Mary’s) had 12 digs.

For Morningside, Callie Alberico (Blair) had 29 assists and six digs while Caitlin Mackovica (Bishop Neumann) had seven kills and five digs and Kayla Harris (South Sioux City) had a team-high 16 digs and four ace serves.

Concordia University improved to 9-0 on the season by opening GPAC play with a 25-19, 24-26, 27-25, 23-25, 15-10 win over College of St. Mary, which dropped to 8-6 with the loss.

Emmie Noyd (Shelby-Rising City) led Concordia with 23 kills on .600 hitting while Jenna Habberger (Pawnee City) had 15 kills and Alex La Plant had 10. Tara Callahan (Brady) had seven kills and 27 assists while Kaylie Dengel (Bellevue East) had 14 digs and Jenna Eller (David City Aquinas) had 12. Morgan Nibbe (Red Cloud) had eight kills and two blocks.

For College of St. Mary, Dani Carlson (Elkhorn) had 20 kills while hitting .263 and Payton Robley (East Butler) had 16 kills and 14 digs. Makenna Freeman (Omaha Westside) had 13 kills and 16 digs while Daryn Willman (Grand Island Central Catholic) had four kills and a dig.

Bellevue University, ranked #24, improved to 6-3 on the season with a 25-22, 25-21, 25-19 win over 1-6 Peru State.

Andrea Carson (Ord) led Bellevue with 10 kills and also had four digs while Shayla Scanlan (Plattsmouth) and Coree Lipovsky (Sandy Creek) each had nine kills and Rosa Reed-Bouley (Omaha Gross) had eight. Olivia Galas (Omaha Gross) had 38 assists and 11 digs for the Bruins while Madi Evans (Millard North) had 10 digs.

For Peru State, Kira Shapiro (Millard West) had six kills and Mallory Matthies (Omaha Roncalli) had four.