Hastings College Volleyball // HC Broncos Athletics
HASTINGS – The Hastings College volleyball team saved the best for last upsetting NAIA No. 8 College of Saint Mary 25-23, 25-23, 25-18 on senior night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
Hastings was recognizing its three seniors in Makenna Asher, Sophie Stevens and Majesta Valasek and sent them out with a bang.
Hastings came out swinging in set one going on an early 6-0 run as Ilse Benne started the run with an astounding kill. Then Valasek went back-to-back followed by two Benne service aces and then a double block from Asher and Kaitlin Thiebauth to make it 8-3 as the Flames called a timeout. The timeout didn’t help CSM as the lead grew to nine as Grace Branson and Valasek helped grow that lead with multiple kills.
CSM would not go quietly coming all the way back to tie the set 23-23. But Asher remained calm connected with Grace Branson for the kill and then Thiebauth picked up the solo block on the attack from Grace Werner to give HC the 25-23 set one win.
In set two, the Lady Broncos held on to a 19-15 lead but a quick run by the Flames tied things right up. Hastings countered as Asher went back to Branson for the kill and then back out to Benne to make it 21-19. Miller picked up a service ace forcing a CSM timeout as Rick Pruitt was not happy. HC eventually set up set point on a Thiebauth kill and Valasek slammed home a kill as Hastings was up 2-0 and on the verge of an upset.
But Hastings had been here before in the previous two meetings with the Flames only to get reverse swept. Things would be different this time around for Hastings.
Hastings would build a nice 12-9 lead and then gained complete control of set three with a 6-0 run as once again Benne began the run with a kill followed by a bad set from Jasa Wiedel. Benne put a nice move on the next serve for an ace and then Valasek blocked Mackenzie Vitosh to go up 16-9. Benne then went back-to-back on service aces to go up 18-9. Hastings had little trouble from there and closed out the sweep with the 25-18 win.
The Lady Broncos had one of its best overall matches of the season hitting .297 for the match. Hastings hit .229 in set one and came back to hit .341 in set two and .312 in set three.
Valasek led the way with a stellar performance of 18kills while hitting .447. Thiebauth also had a great night with eight kills hitting .350. Branson added seven kills while hitting .375 and Benne finished with eight kills. Asher led the way with another double-double with 38 assists and 10 digs. Miriam Miller led the match with 20 digs while Benne finished with five service aces.
Hastings ends the season at 9-16 (4-12)
