FREMONT, NE – Grand View traveled to Midland University to play a top tier opponent on the road. The Warriors are ranked #17 in the country, and the Vikings are receiving votes for the first time this season.
Set 1
The first set started very back and forth. The Vikings had spiked some noise early with a block from Juliana Neves and Brooklyn Roder which gave the GV a 5-4 advantage. After more battling, the Vikings went from down one, to down 14-23. Grand View showed resilience though, as they rallied off 7 straight points and six on the serving hand of Mariah Kalima-Izumi. This forced two Midland timeouts in the process and the deficit was cut to two. Though the Vikings didn't find the win in set one, they had gained momentum heading into set two.
Set 2
Grand View started the set out slow but ramped it up. Vitoria Campos Mello served six straight points including an ace. Later in the set, the match was all square at 12. Mariana de Carvalho found two kills in a 5-point run by the Vikings. Grand View broke into another run as the extended the lead to 23-14. Neves connected with Vitoria Campos Mello three different times in this stretch. After dropping a few, Roder ended the set with a kill and evened the match at 1-1.
Set 3
Carvalho started the middle set with a hard swing to jump start the Vikings. Grand View had some miss cues to follow, as Brena Mackling of Midland found three straight aces. Carvalho found the second point of the set for GV, stopping the run. Campos Mello and Jocelyn Barrett teamed up for a block directly after and gave life to the Vikings bench. Grand View kept on the heels of the Warriors but couldn't gain an edge for much of this set. Midland found two more aces and pushed the game to 7-13 before Grand View called a timeout to reset. Carvalho swung on a set from Neves to spark momentum out of the timeout. This was followed up by a Roder block and a service ace from Aydia Mayotte. Neves was looking for Carvalho now, as they connected on three more attacks and the Vikings were within three, 13-16. Vitoria found the next kill and then joined up with Barrett for a block and put the Vikings one back. Now it was Vitoria heating up, as two more attacks found holes in the Midland defense and GV tied it up at 17. The score crept within one for a while after this, going back and forth until Vitoria found an ace and gave the Vikings their first lead of set three since 1-0. Carvalho and Neves provided two more points on strong attacks and forced a Midland timeout at 22-20. The timeout proved effective as they rallied three straight and GV took a timeout of their own at 22-23. Carvalho came out and found a strong kill to tie the game, but the Vikings were held off to fall into a must have set.
Set 4
This set started just as competitive as the last. Neves set up Campos Mello, Carvalho, and Mya Clapp early, spreading the ball to many attackers at the start of set four. Neves also tied the set up at 9-9 with a services ace. Midland found another run and spread the lead to 5 before a Vikings timeout around the midpoint of the set. Though Grand View's fight was apparent, they couldn't get anything rolling and the lead spread to 13-21 before another timeout was made. The Warriors kept their momentum, and Grand View fell 13-25 and 1-3 in the final.
MATCH NOTES
UP NEXT
Grand View will play their first conference matchup this Saturday against Culver-Stockton College. The game will be at 5:30 PM on September 6th.
