Hastings College Wins 2016 NAIA National Championship

Match Stats

• Hastings College (Nebraska) def. Dordt College (Iowa) 3-2 (23-25, 15-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-6)
• Hastings College wins the 2016 NAIA National Championship.
• Tyson Events Center, Sioux City, Iowa
• Attendance: 510

Saturday was a good day to be a Hastings College Bronco. Just hours after their men’s soccer team won the NAIA National Championship, the Broncos women’s volleyball team followed suit with a 5-set, come-from-behind victory over Dordt College (Iowa).

After Dordt took a 2-0 lead, Hastings’ offense finally revved up (in what was not a very offensive-facing match). The Broncos hit .346, and held Dordt to .032, in a dominant third set coming out of the intermission.

“We needed to go sit down and think about ourselves for a second,” Hastings head coach Matt Buttermore said. “It gave us a chance to step back, realize what we were trying to accomplish and come out and change the dynamic on our side of the court.

“We were aggressive. In set one and definitely set two we had way too many tips, way too many soft shots, nothing aggressive at all. You don’t want to lose a championship playing like that so we definitely wanted to change that in the third set.”

They regressed a little in the 4th, but while they didn’t hit well, a varied offense that had Hastings kills from 4 different players tied the match at 2-2. In that 4th set, Placke had 4 kills and 7 assists. She led the Broncos in both kills (14) and assists (26) in the game, and also chipped in 6 digs and 4 blocks for a masterful performance.

The 5th and final set was a perfect storm where all of the momentum went the way of the eventual champions. Their offense hit a match-high .462, while the team’s two big seniors Logan Drueppel and Jennifer Klaudt (standing 6’2 and 6’3, respectively) led a defensive attack that had 6 blocks in the team’s final 15 points.

“It’s pretty much all you could ever dream of,” Drueppel said. “How else can you go out better?”

Dordt’s Ema Altena led all players with 19 kills, but 11 errors (3 of which came in the momentum-shifting 3rd set) held her percentage below .200. Summer Jansen had 33 digs for the national runners-up.