MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College once again threw a scare into one of the Midwest Collegiate Conference’s top teams, but Grand View University pulled through for a four-set win over the Tigers Monday night at Ruble Arena.
IWC dropped its final regular season match of the season and also its Senior Night game. The Vikings prevailed 25-12, 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, sending Wesleyan to 16-13 overall and 3-5 in the MCC.
With the loss, the Tigers dropped into a tie with Mount Mercy College for fifth in the final MCC regular season standings. The Mustangs defeated William Penn University on Monday night to move into the tie, and based on MMC’s regular season win over IWC the Mustangs take the fifth seed in the upcoming MCC Tournament. Wesleyan drops to the sixth seed and will travel to face #3 seed Viterbo (Wis.) University on Saturday.
IWC came out slow against Grand View as the Vikings barely broke a sweat in rolling through the first set. The Tigers fired up in the second set and never trailed, hanging on to a short lead throughout and hitting .265 in the set with 18 kills to just five errors.
The third and fourth sets were mostly mirror images, with Wesleyan hanging tough except for brief but costly rough spots at the end of the sets. The Tigers led 18-16 in the third set before the Vikings scored seven straight points to take control. The teams then went back and forth for most of the fourth set until Grand View scored five straight for a 20-15 lead that would hold as IWC never got closer than three the rest of the way.
Megan McVey (So.-Fort Worth, Tex.) had 20 kills to go with 17 errors in 67 attack attempts. Katie Jammer (Jr.-Green Bay, Wis.) added 11 kills. Kendra Zimmerman (Jr.-Green Bay, Wis.) had 48 assists. The Tigers had more kills than the Vikings (53-50) but had 39 attack errors to just 21 for GVU.
Katie Leidl (Sr.-Esterhazy, Saskatchewan) had 23 digs, while Jammer added 16 digs and Brittany Richardson (Jr.-Benton, Ill.) had 14. It was the final home regular season match for Leidl and Richardson, the two seniors on this year’s team.
Devon Jensen led Grand View with 17 kills while Sydney Stickrod added 13 kills with just two attack errors. The Vikings improved to 23-13 overall and clinched second place outright in the MCC regular season with a 7-1 record.
For more information regarding the IWC volleyball program or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
Box score GVU 3 IWC 1
