st. Paul, minn. - the golden bear volleyball team aced st. Cloud state a season high 11 times on their way to a 53 minute homecoming win, 25-8, 25-9, 25-11. Concordia has now won 56 consecutive matches and is 19-0 on the year (8-0 nsic). The huskies fall to 6-14 overall and 2-6 in the league. The golden bears host bemidji state and minnesota duluth next weekend at the gangelhoff center. box score
concordia dominated the match from the first points, with cassie haag pounding away a kill for the first point and megan carlson serving up the match's first ace for a 2-0 start. mary slinger continued with aces in three of four serves in the midst of cu's 10-1 opening run. The golden bear offense did not get many chances to attack during the 25-8 first set as five aces were served up and more points came from scsu hitting errors, but more opportunities were to come.
the golden bears received a multitude of free balls to work with in the second set and they did not disappoint the crowd of over 500. They drilled out 16 kills with only 1 error for a .625 average. The sets were spread evenly between all of the hitters, with ellie duffy swinging for four kills and the team's other four hitters each putting down three kills. The huskies countered with a few good attacks of their own, but they came up with only seven kills in the set, their highest set total in the match.
cu was slow to open the final set, but finished the win off with a 16-3 run. Carlson again proved effective from the service line, serving up a stretch of eight points with two aces mixed in. She led the team's attack at the back line with four aces. Slinger had three on the night.
the golden bears hit at a .487 clip with kessler and emily palkert each tabbing a match high 11 kills. Slinger led the way defensively with nine digs, but with the huskies barely giving the team a chance to pick up attacks, the dig total stayed low. St. Cloud state had only 16 kills throughout the match, a total that cu achieved in the second set alone. Kayla tschida led the team with seven kills, while sarah madden had a team high six digs.
