NIACC falls to 2 rated foes at Heartland CC Invite

NORMAL, Ill. - The NIACC volleyball team dropped a pair of decisions to rated NJCAA Division II opponents Saturday at the Heartland CC Invitational.

No. 8 Madison College stopped NIACC 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-18). Host No. 7 Heartland CC topped the Trojans 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-9).

"We went head-to-head many times or even had the lead with ranked teams," NIACC coach Chris Brandt said. "Any time we can force opponents such as this into taking a timeout, we know we are doing something right.

"We are so proud of the tenacity of this team. They just kept working all weekend. They were mentally stronger than we have seen in the past and now we just to need to continue feeding them the volleyball IQ so they make the best choices more often."

Sophomore Jaida Hansen led the Trojans with 19 kills, four digs and four blocks. Iwalani Beltran had 30 assists, 15 digs and three ace serves and Kennedy Schwiesow had 32 digs, two ace serves, one kill and one assist.

NIACC's Abbie Hyde had 12 digs and two assists, Addison Tabbert had 10 kills, seven kills and two blocks and Alicia Machacek had six kills and two blocks.

Also for the Trojans, Ellie Hanna had nine kills, six digs and three blocks, Emily Opstvedt had 18 kills, three ace serves and 12 digs, Kit Byars had nine kills and eight blocks and Zhane Singer had six kills, seven digs and two blocks.

NIACC (8-12 overall) returns to action Tuesday at home against No. 10 Iowa Central. Match time is slated for 7 p.m.

"Three ranked teams in two days to prepare us next week for (10) Iowa Central and (15) Hawkeye CC," Brandt said. "The strength of schedule for a two-week stretch is probably the hardest we have ever seend and we aren't going to back down from the challenge."