Ottumwa, IA – No. 10 nationally ranked Indian Hills Volleyball used an impressive offensive performance to drop Carl Sandburg College (IL) 3-1 on Wednesday night at the Hellyer Center. The Warriors move to 10-3 on the year after winning their fifth-straight contest.
For just the fourth time in the last eight seasons, Indian Hills broke the .500 hitting percentage as the Warriors put together their top offensive production of the year. Indian Hills tallied 59 kills in the win over the Chargers, its third-highest mark of the year. The Warriors dropped Carl Sandburg by set scores of 25-16, 25-16, 22-25, and 25-17.
The Warriors have now won 15 of their last 17 sets to notch the 10th win of the year. Indian Hills, who climbed to No. 10 in the national polls this week improved to 13-1 all-time vs. Carl Sandburg, including nine consecutive victories.
For the first time this season, the Warriors placed four individuals in the double-digit kill column. Sophomore Sara Van Gisteren (Leuth, Netherlands/Young Talent Academy ROC Nijmegen), this week's National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) DI Volleyball Player of the Week, tallied a team-high 17 kills while Joanna Pawlik (Lublin, Poland/Nauczycieli Tajnego Nauczania) connected on 13 kills. Daniela De Los Santos Castillo (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic/Colegio los Clavelines) put together one of the most productive offensive performances of her career, tallying 12 kills on 18 attempts with zero errors. Piper Nelson (Atkins, IA/Benton) added 10 kills on 13 attempts with zero errors.
As a team, the Warriors totaled just 10 attack errors on the night, the lowest mark of the season.
Sophomore Ana Carolina Westerich (Blumenau, Brazil/) totaled 50 assists on the night to surpass the 500-assist mark for the year for the second consecutive season. The sophomore is the only individual in the nation with more than 500 assists during the 2024 campaign. Westerich added a team-high four service aces in the win.
Sabrina Nogueira Da Silva (São Paulo, Brazil/Colégio Campos Salles) collected 19 digs on the night and is now just three digs shy of surpassing 900 digs for her Indian Hills career. Da Silva climbed to No. 3 in the nation in total digs with 254 on the year.
Van Gisteren, who swept the weekly national and conference Athlete of the Week honors this week, surpassed 200 kills for the season and now ranks third nationally with 203 on the year.
Castillo was once again a force on both sides of the net for the Warriors. The sophomore's 12 kills on the night set a new personal-best while adding three block assists for the Warriors.
The Warriors are set to take on an ultra-competitive schedule this weekend at the annual Sheila Worley Invitational in Sterling, CO. Indian Hills will take on the likes of No. 4 Barton, No. 6 and tournament host Northeastern Junior College (CO), No. 15 New Mexico Junior College, and Laramie County Community College (WY). Action gets underway Friday afternoon.
HOW TO WATCH
As always, GoHillsTV provides free live broadcasts of Indian Hills Volleyball matches. Fans can tune in a number of ways all season long:
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- Website: https://www.gohillstv.com/browse to catch all live and archived information
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