ST. PAUL, Minn. – Grinnell College's volleyball team had a successful performance in Minnesota Saturday, beating Hamline University in four sets before taking 12
th-ranked University of Northwestern (Mn.) to four sets in a loss.
Grinnell beat Hamline 25-15, 23-25, 25-23 and 25-19. The Pioneers featured a three-headed hitting attack of
Hayley Taka '26,
Malaina Miles '24 and
Rachel Woock '23, who had 14, 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Taka hit an even .500 for the match and Miles added a .370 efficiency.
Emily Brewer '24, who became the ninth Pioneer to reach 1,000 assists for her career, contributed 42 and served ud up six aces, the latter ranking sixth in program history for a four-setter. In the digs department,
Payton Lowrey '23 tallied 20 and Brewer 10.
Grinnell scored 12 of the first 14 points of the opening set on its way to the easy win. After dropping the second set, the Pioneers were in danger of losing the third when they trailed 23-22. However,
Ella O'Neill '25 had a kill and Hamline an attack error and ball handling error to secure Grinnell's win.
A six-point run that included two aces by Brewer helped Grinnell break away from a 10-all tie in the fourth set.
Nicole Mlynski '26 led Grinnell's kills attack against Northwestern with nine and Brewer added 25 assists.
Julianna Vajda '24 served up four aces and five players had double-digit digs –
Emmy Nyquist '24 with 15, Brewer, Lowrey and
Sophie Weber '25 with 11 each and Woock with 10.
Northwestern posted wins of 25-10 and 25-15 in the first two sets before Grinnell came back to take the third 26-24. The Pioneers dug a 6-0 hole for themselves in the third before Vajda sparked a seven-point run with two aces to tie it at 12-all. It was back and forth after that before the Pioneers broke away from a 24-all tie on kills by Mlynski and Miles to get the win.
Northwestern answered with a 25-16 win in the fourth set as Grinnell moved to 5-2 on the season.
The Pioneers are back at Darby Gymnasium Tuesday when Central College visits for a 7 p.m. test.
