Dakota Wesleyan's Ady Dwight, Madeline Else named first team all-GPAC
Nov. 15—MITCHELL — Two Dakota Wesleyan University volleyball players were selected to the all-Great Plains Athletic Conference first team on Tuesday, with senior Madeline Else and junior Ady Dwight picked to the conference's top honor squad.
Else, a 5-foot-7 senior from Holstein, Iowa, ranks No. 2 nationally in assists per set (11.72) and has logged 1,277 assists for the season, along with 245 digs, 22 service aces and 48 kills. Her passing has helped the Tigers rank in the top-20 nationally in kills per set. Else is an all-GPAC first team seletion for the first time after being picked to the second team in 2020 and 2021.
Dwight, the 6-foot junior middle blocker from Langford, ranks No. 1 nationally in points per set at 5.2, third nationally in total kills (512) and second in the country in kills per set (4.7). She is ninth nationally in hitting percentage at .350, while logging 112 blocks. The former GPAC freshman of the year in 2020 is on the first team all-conference list for the third time, becoming the first player in DWU program history to accomplish that feat in the GPAC.
DWU's Mackenzie Miller and Hanna Reiff were both picked to the conference's second team. Miller, a senior right-side hitter from Mitchell, is second on the team in kills with 287 and has 65 blocks to her name this season, also ranking second in points for the Tigers this season. Reiff, a senior from Chester, has recorded 570 digs on the season as the Tigers' libero and ranks in the top-40 nationally in digs per set. Mariah Gloe, a senior outside hitter from Watertown, and Tya Weideman, a junior defensive specialist from Mellette, were both honorable mention selections for DWU.
The GPAC season award winners were dominated by the conference's regular season and tournament champions Jamestown. Kalli Hegerle, a setter/right-side hitter from West Fargo, N.D., was the conference's player of the year, while her uncle, Jon Hegerle, was the GPAC coach of the year. It is his third consecutive coach of the year award in the GPAC, while Jamestown has had four consecutive 30-win seasons. Concordia's Ashley Keck, an outside hitter from Kearney, Nebraska, was named the conference's freshman of the year. The conference's setter of the year award was given to Midland senior Hope Leimbach, of Lincoln, Nebraska. Leimbach is No. 1 in the country in assists per set, while DWU's Else is No. 2.
The Tigers (22-7), who finished the regular season ranked No. 6 in the country, will host Kansas Wesleyan in the NAIA opening round on Saturday, Nov. 18. The match is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Corn Palace.
