DES MOINES – Grand View College defeated the Iowa Wesleyan College volleyball team in three sets on Monday night in the Tigers’ final regular season match before postseason play.
In the match to decide seventh place in the Midwest Collegiate Conference, the Vikings jumped on the Tigers early and won 25-12, 25-22, 25-20. Grand View finished 2-6 in the MCC in the regular season and clinched the seventh seed in the upcoming conference tourney, while IWC at 1-7 in conference will be the eighth seed in the tourney.
As a result, the Tigers (11-18 overall) will host ninth-seeded Mount Mercy College on Thursday night in the MCC Tournament First Round match. The winner of that match will advance to face #1 seed St. Ambrose University on Saturday.
IWC was plagued by hitting errors against the Vikings, with 27 errors to 29 kills in the match. The Tigers also got off to a slow start, falling behind 17-5 in the first set and only leading a few times over the course of the evening.
The closest set was the second, when IWC came back from a five point deficit to take a one-point lead at 22-21 before GVC scored the final four points to win. The Tigers also had a 20-19 lead late in the third set before Grand View (17-19 overall) finished with six straight points to close out the match.
Kendra Zimmerman (So.-Green Bay, Wis.) led the Tigers in both kills (seven) and assists (16). Katie Leidl (Jr.-Esterhazy, Saskatchewan) led the team in digs with 14.
The Tigers’ volleyball match on Thursday also will shake up the schedule for the Iowa Wesleyan men’s basketball team, which is scheduled to open its season at home at Ruble Arena on Thursday. The basketball game against Hannibal-LaGrange (Mo.) College will now be moved up to 5 p.m. from its original start time of 7 p.m., with the volleyball match to follow at 8 p.m.
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 GVC 3 IWC 0
