sophomore setter maggie mcnamara broke her own single-season assist record in the second game, her previous record was 1,977 - she needed 20 in tonight's match and finished with 65, making her the first player in dii history with 2,000 assists in the 30-pt scoring format (2,022). Mcnamara: "i just want to keep winning."

the second-ranked concordia university volleyball advanced to the ncaa division ii volleyball championship match with a 3-1 win (30-17, 30-22, 29-31, 30-19) over #8 west texas am. Freshman emily palkert (excelsior, minn., pictured right) led a group of five concordia players in double-figures in kills with 21 along with six blocks. She hit .459 in 37 attempts (four errors). The bears will play #15 western washington in the championship match.

the golden bears led from wire-to-wire in all three games (1, 2 and 4) that they won and had the lady buffs at match point in the third game, leading 29-28 before wtamu rallied for three straight points to keep the match alive. In the deciding game, concordia cruised to an 18-8 lead before putting the lady buffs away on a kill by junior whitney meierotto (washburn, wis.).

"wow," head coach brady starkey opened with in the post-match press conference. He continued, "our girls came out really, really fired up tonight. Right from the get-go, they just went after it."

the golden bears started the match with a 12-6 lead to force an early timeout by west texas am. They pushed the lead as high as 22-9 as meierotto provided another kill for five straight cu points.

west texas am head coach tony graystone commented, "concordia was amazing tonight. We got ourselves in a hole to start every game. I have a lot of respect for my team and i'm happy with the way they played tonight. If you get beat by a better squad, then no big deal at this level. I have a lot of respect for their program and in a lot of ways that is where i want us to be in the future."

sophomore setter maggie mcnamara (zumbrota, minn.) broke her own ncaa division ii assist record as her 65 assists give her 2,022 for the season. Last year, she set the record with 1,977 assists. She also recorded a double-double with 14 digs and led the offense to a .207 attack pct., as the golden bears produced 75 kills recording at least 18 each game.

on breaking her own record in just her sophomore season, mcnamara was quick to state where her focus remains, "i just want to keep winning. I don't care about records, i care so much about my teammates - i couldn't do anything without them. Tonight, they passed amazing."

mcnamara, who set concordia's five hitters to double-digit kills, commented, "i can count on any of them at any given time and i trust them all. Sometimes when the ball is in the air, i wonder what i'm going to do with it because they are always ready. Throughout the year i've really learned to trust them."

in a match where the golden bear defense was everywhere, the lady buffs had just 42 kills as a team and no wtamu player reached double-figures. The strong defensive effort was led by sophomore libero mary slinger (faribault, minn., pictured left) who had a match-high 31 digs.

starkey continued in his opening statement, "the girls played sweet defense, not letting anything hit the floor. We just kept battling every point, putting the pressure on them to make plays for the whole match."

five players had at least 13 digs as cu held a 108-81 advantage while holding the lady buffs to a .071 team hitting pct. Wtamu never hit above .100 in a single game.

graystone continued to comment about the golden bear defense, "they were terrific, they were faster than we could handle and we couldn't put a ball away. Their defense was amazing."

concordia also played solid defense at the net, registering 15.0 blocks and holding a 15-12 blocking advantage. Cu only committed one blocking error while the lady buffs committed three. Palkert was joined by junior maria steinhagen (alexandria, minn., pictured left) with six blocks. Steinhagen produced three of her blocks in a solo effort. Meierotto also had a pair of solo blocks and finished with four total. Sophomore sadie kessler (st. Michael, minn.) had four blocks as well, while senior kate bennett (eagan, minn.) had three (one solo).

meierotto (pictured right) finished with 18 kills and 18 digs for her 25th double-double of the season.

joining palkert and meierotto in double-digit kills were bennett with 13, kessler with 12 and steinhagen with 11.

rounding out the double-figure digs club on the night along with slinger, mcnamara and meierotto were freshmen krista erickson (andover, minn.) and rachel knutsen (st. Michael, minn.).

the golden bears will play #15 western washington in the national championship match tomorrow, dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m.

it will be concordia's second trip to the championship match. The golden bears fell to north alabama in 2003.

"having been to the title already won't help us tomorrow. None of these girls were on the team in 2003. Our thing is to come out fired up like we did tonight. When our girls compete like that, they are really tough to beat."

starkey concluded by saying, "the girls love to play in front of big crowds."

host washburn university played in front of over 2,000 fans yesterday and have another large crowd tonight.

box score - csp 3, west texas am 1