Ottumwa, IA – Facing a 2-1 deficit heading into the fourth set, No. 18 Indian Hills Volleyball battled back to knock off visiting Des Moines Area Community College 3-2 at the Hellyer Center on Monday night. The Warriors close out the regular season with a 26-10 overall record.
The Warriors rallied with an impressive stretch to close out the match on Monday, outscoring the Bers 40-15 over the final two frames. The Warriors took the opening set 25-21 before dropping the next two, 25-17 and 25-22. Indian Hills bounced back with a dominant 25-11 win in the fourth before finishing off DMACC 15-4 in the decisive fifth set.
Under head coach Lyndsey Michel, the Warriors have now reached at least 26 wins in a season eight times over the past 12 seasons.
Monday night's contest also served as the regular season home finale for nine sophomores that were honored before the contest – Sasha Vidal (Asunción, Paraguay/Trinity School), Kiley Heller (Ottumwa, IA/Ottumwa), Maggie Paiva (Asunción, Paraguay/Trinity School), Vitoria Dias Silva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Sistema Elite de Ensino), Larissa Barreiros Scatamburlo (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colégio Liceu Franco-Brasileiro), Kinga Michalska (Szówsko, Poland/ZSSCHiO), Gabriela Bieniek (Rzeszow, Poland/VLO Rzeszow), and Emme Wilson (Sandy, UT/Skyline).
Michalska powered the Warrior offense with 22 kills on the night while posting a .333 hitting percentage. The sophomore tallied six kills in both the first and fourth sets to lead the Warriors to the come-from-behind victory. Michlaska also added eight digs on Monday night.
Freshman Sara Van Gisteren (Leuth, Netherlands/Young Talent Academy ROC Nijmegen) added 11 kills on 20 swings for a .400 hitting percentage while Dias Silva tacked on seven kills on a team-high .429 hitting percentage. Scatamburlo chipped in nine kills for the Warriors.
Indian Hills took the tightly contested opening frame with a late push to close out the set for an early 1-0 advantage. DMACC responded with a sizable lead in set two to pull away for the equalizer before dropping the Warriors in the third set.
The Warriors regrouped between sets and used an early spark to pull away from the Bears for the largest lead of the night, closing out the set on a 15-6 run. Indian Hills carried its momentum in the fifth set, jumping out to a 6-0 lead to start the fifth set, a lead the Warriors ran away with for the match victory.
Offensively, Van Gisteren powered the Warriors with a career-high eight service aces as the Warriors converted 18 aces overall, the most for a Lyndsey Michel-led squad over the past 12 seasons. As a team, the Warriors' 313 service aces on the year rank fourth in the NJCAA.
Defensively, Vidal and Sabrina Nogueira Da Silva (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Campos Salles) combined for 36 digs in the victory.
The Warriors will now head into postseason action and are set to host the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) DI Volleyball Midwest District Tournament Saturday, November 4 at the Hellyer Center. The four-team tournament gets underway with Indian Hills taking on the NJCAA Region 4 champion, set to be determined Wednesday night, at 11:00 AM followed by Missouri State University – West Plains and Vincennes University (IN) squaring off at 1:00 PM with the winners advancing to the District championship at 5:00 PM.
Fans can catch all of the action live on GoHillsTV via www.gohillstv.com/browse, the GoHillsTV Mobile App on Android and Apple devices, GoHillsTV Facebook, and the GoHillsTV Roku App
Fans can purchase tournament passes for all of Saturday's action here: NJCAA MIDWEST DISTRICT TOURNAMENT PASS
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