#2 Concordia University's 17-match winning streak came to a close along with their season as they fell to #3 University of Tampa in five games, 30-27, 23-30, 30-28, 27-30, 11-15 on Thursday afternoon in the NCAA Elite Eight quaterfinals at the Health Sports Center on the campus of University of Nebraska at Kearney.
"Tampa did a great job today," said head coach Brady Starkey in his opening statement at the post-game press conference. "They were more consistent throughout the match and kept up their pressure."
The Golden Bears won the first game 30-27 despite falling behind 20-16. The first game set the tone for a closely contested match. There were 12 ties and nine lead changes in the first game.
Concordia jumped out to a hot start in the second game, as they lead 6-2 early, forcing Tampa to call an early timeout. The Spartans rallied out of the timeout to tie the score at 10 and take their first lead of the game at 14-13, forcing Concordia into a timeout. Tampa continued their strong effort throughout the second game. They went on a 8-2 scoring run to close out a 30-23 game two win to even the match at one apiece.
Tampa played their momentum into the third game, taking an early 3-1 lead, but the Golden Bears responded by taking a 6-1 run to take a 7-4 lead. The third game was as close as the first, with 12 ties and seven lead changes. But Concordia held the upper hand and finished off the Spartans 30-28 to take a 2-1 lead when sophomore Monica McNamara pounded a kill past the aggressive Tampa front line.
Concordia struggled early in game four, falling behind 11-4. That set the tone in the game as Tampa led by as much as eight, 21-13. But Concordia fought back with a 8-1 run to cut the score to 24-23 and later tied it up at 27 following a pair of solo blocks by seniors Valerie Olson and Cailin Terhaar. But the Spartans used a kill and a pair of aces to steal the last three points to even the match at 2-2 with a 30-27 game-four victory.
"In the fourth game I told the team that we needed to develop momentum in the event that there is a fifth game. If we won game four, great. But momentum for the last game is what i was looking for," said Starkey of the team's game-four rally.
The momentum the Golden Bears earned at the end of the fourth game carried over to the deciding fifth game as they used a 4-0 rally to take a 6-5 lead. They also held leads of 8-6 and 10-9, at which point the Spartans made their run of four straight points to take a 13-10 lead. The Golden Bears would only record one more point on a Tampa service error as the Spartans won the final game 15-11.
"We fell flat in game five, we weren't aggressive and didn't go for it like we had all season," Starkey said of the deciding game.
Junior Kelsey Kyro led four Golden Bears in double-figures with 16 kills. Senior Valerie Olson added 15, and sophomore Monica McNamara added 13. Junior Jessica Lucia recorded a double-double but had a season-low 10 kills, hitting just .065 in 46 total attacks. Lucia had 15 digs to with her 10 kills.
When asked about the performance of Lucia, the North Central Region's Player of the Year, Terhaar, a senior captain, defended her by saying, "Our offense has so many options that the attack was fine tonight. Our defense usually takes care of the offense, and the defense just wasn't there tonight."
The defense, which had been a strong point for much of the season, did not feed into the potent offensive attack. The Spartans recorded 14 service aces and forced Concordia into an unconventional five ball-handling errors.
Concordia did edge the Spartans in digs, 84-68, and blocks, 9-5. Junior libero Megan Graham recorded a match-high 22 digs, and four other Golden Bears reached double-digit digs. Junior Ashley Olson matched Lucia's 15 digs and had nine kills in the process. Senior Danielle Niehls had 12 digs as well.
Terhaar, a first-team All-American, had 58 assists and recorded a double-double with 10 digs. She had three kills in five attacks without an error as she attempted to keep an aggressive Tampa front off guard.
"We had aggressive swings tonight, but Tampa kept up the pressure and we didn't respond," said Val Olson of the match. "I'm still shocked that this is it, but we had a great run, and we have a lot to be proud of. We played well together and had a lot of fun as a team. There aren't a lot of teams that can say what we can."
The Golden Bears, ranked no. 2 in the nation, finished the season 30-5 overall, a perfect 14-0 in the NSIC, and were the NCAA North Central Regional champions and Northern Sun tournament champions. Starkey's career record in three seasons as Concordia's head coach is 94-12, and he is 43-1 in conference play. He has guided the Bears to three straight NCAA Tournaments and this was his second NCAA Elite Eight appearance in three years. His career NCAA Tournament record is 8-3.
