AVE MARIA, Fla. — It is not often that you get an NAIA school taking on an NCAA Division I team, but that is exactly what happened Saturday morning as the Ave Maria Beach Volleyball team played host to the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska, whose indoor volleyball team has won five national championships, decided to take a spring break trip down to Florida and added Ave Maria to the schedule.
Nebraska won both matches, sweeping the first match 5-0 and winning the second match 3-2.
All five flights in the first match were clean two set sweeps by the Cornhuskers. Elle Malczewski and Greta Heiney were the pair to win the most points, scoring a total of 39 as they fell 23-21, 21-18.
The second match was much closer than the first. Nebraska won the first three flights to finish, clinching the match, but one of the flights needed a third set. Beatriz Rissi and Maria Texeira won the opening set of the fourth flight 21-17. Nebraska took the next two sets 21-18 and 16-14 to win the point, but the Gyrene pair can say they won a set against mighty Nebraska.
Towards the end of the match, two flights were still playing, and Nebraska was running out of time due to scheduled flights back to the Cornhusker State. With the time constraint, the Cornhuskers forfeited the final two flights, giving Elle Malczewski/Greta Heiney and Maylis DeTar/Abbey Grose de facto wins over an NCAA Division I opponent. DeTar and Grose won their first set 24-22 before dropping the second which forced a third set that Nebraska did not have time to complete. Malczewski and Heiney were just about to start their second set down 1-0 when the Cornhuskers had to leave the sand.
With the two losses, Ave Maria falls to 9-3 overall but had a great experience competing against the top level of collegiate volleyball.
The Gyrenes are back in the sand two more times on March 28 as they close out the regular season with matches against St. Thomas and Florida Memorial. The first match against the Bobcats is set for 11 a.m.. The Gyrenes will then take on the Lions at 1 p.m.
