MITCHELL, SD. – The Hastings College volleyball team was back to full strength as they hit the road to take on (RV) Dakota Wesleyan coming away with the 18-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-23 on Friday night.
Even though DWU won the first set, this was a show put on by Majesta Valasek and the Tigers’ Ady Dwight as both finished the first set with eight kills each. Hastings had a matchup issue with Dwight and decided that on the rotation with Madison Glenn, when the Lady Broncos were serving, they would put Amiya Barnes in to block. The move paid off as Dwight went from hitting .534 in set one to finishing the match by hitting just .259.
Now that Hastings slowed down the top hitter from DWU, it was Hastings that seized the momentum beginning in set two and relied heavily on Valasek. Set two was tight until a little run by Hastings midway through created some separation. Valasek picked up a kill followed by a block from Barnes. Dwight countered with a kill for DWU but Barnes came back with a kill followed by another kill from Valasek as Hastings now led 15-12 forcing a Tiger timeout.
Leading 18-17, Hastings would go on a 4-0 run highlighted by kills from Ilse Benne and Grace Branson as HC tied the match by winning set two 25-20 with Valasek getting the final two kills of the set.
Hastings looked to have control of set three but DWU came right back and held a 22-20 lead as Hastings called a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, DWU picked up attack errors from Lily Ranschau and Dwight followed by a Valasek kill put HC back in front 23-22 with the Tigers taking a timeout. It didn’t matter as Sophie Stevens picked up an ace and then Asher teamed up with Kaitlin Thiebauth for the block as the Lady Broncos were now one set away from pulling off the upset.
After Valasek picked up a kill to give HC an 18-17 lead, she went to the back row and Hastings needed someone to step up if they were going to finish this in four sets. After DWU regained the lead, Asher connected with Thiebauth for the kill and then Benne picked up a huge solo block to make it 20-20. After DWU took a brief 21-20 lead, Benne picked up a big kill moving Valasek back to the front row and even though the entire gym knew where the ball was going to go, it didn’t seem to matter as Valasek was on another level as she picked up back-to-back kills forcing a DWU timeout. Benne then got a service ace and two plays later, Asher went back outside to Valasek as she hammered home the kill for the victory.
Valasek absolutely had herself a night with a career high 32 kills while hitting .373 to go along with 12 digs. Dating back to 2007, no Hastings player has eclipsed the 30 kill mark until tonight with Valasek and her 32 kills. The school record is 36 kills set by Nancy Farmer back in 1993 against Northwestern.
Asher added 43 assists and three kills while Miriam Miller was flying all over the court as she finished with 31 digs. Those 31 digs tie Miller’s career high for digs in a single match. Thiebauth and Benne each finished with six kills.
Hastings improves to 8-8 (3-4) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Sept. 30 heading further north to take on Jamestown with first serve set for 3:00 pm in Jamestown, ND.
