aberdeen, s.d. - the #1 golden bear volleyball team muzzled the wolves of northern state 3-0 (25-23, 25-9, 25-18) in a match played at wachs arena friday night. Concordia (24-0, 13-0 nsic) put up an inpenetrable defense to hold northern (8-13, 3-10 nsic) to a .000 hitting average. They increase their winning streak to 61 matches as they head to bismarck, n.d. For a meeting with the university of mary on saturday afternoon. box score
concordia's 70 digs in the win is a season high mark for a three set match. Five players went into double figures for digs, led by, of all people, setter maggie mcnamara (sr., zumbrota, minn.) with 16. Blocking also secured the win for the team with the second straight match with 10 blocks. emily palkert (jr., excelsior, minn.) topped the list with seven blocks, including four solos!!
the wolves of northern state had sparks of success in the match but were unable to maintain a consistent effort to hold the golden bears at bay. With concordia hitting far below their normal average, the wolves had chances to make a run at what has seemed to be an unbeatable team.
in the first set, the wolves blew a 15-10 lead that they had gained from a surplus of cu hitting errors. sadie kessler (sr., st. Michael, minn.) started to right the golden bear ship with a service ace and later a kill. The game became knotted up at 21-21 as cassie haag (fr., plymouth, minn.) delivered a kill from the set of mcnamara. Mcnamara finished off a 9-3 run on her own, tipping to an open spot on the nsu court to end the set 25-23.
the golden bears were happy to see their hitting turn around in the second set after putting up a .158 average in the first. They jumped out to a swift 15-3 lead, forcing northern to chew up both of their timeouts in an attempt to stop the bleeding. But concordia held nothing back in the set that finished with a score of 25-9, putting up 15 kills with a .375 average and a whopping five blocks. Palkert sensed the wolves' vulnerabilities and tabbed five kills to go with four blocks in the set. Haag took advantage of the middle of the court as well and added five kills. The set of middle hitters combined for only one hitting error, killing 10 of their 13 swings.
concordia finished off their night of work with a slower final set on offense, but continued to deliver defensively. They added another four blocks and put up 25 digs in the last set of play, including nine digs from mcnamara. megan carlson (so., andover, minn.) got more one-on-one chances and nailed out six kills.
carlson completed a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs on the night. Haag matched her with a team high 10 kills, while palkert followed with nine. krista erickson (jr., andover, minn.) stepped in as a defensive substitution and racked up a season high 14 digs. She was matched by libero mary slinger (sr., faribault, minn.) in the category. The team hit at a .165 average and had 70 digs.
the wolves received 10 of their 25 kills from senior middle kelsey aden. Stephanie drake had a team high 13 digs. The squad combined for a .000 hitting performance and had 52 digs to go along with 5.0 blocks.
