st. Paul, minn. - the thought of meeting the next hottest team in the nsic on halloween night may have put fear into some golden bear followers, but the #1 cu volleyball team played assertively against #15 wayne state college and dispelled the evils of the wildcats in a 3-0 win (25-23, 25-23, 25-16). Concordia is now 27-0 on the year and 16-0 in the nsic while wayne state falls to 24-5 and 12-3 in the league, breaking a seven-match winning streak. box score
the wildcats had the golden bears over the coals during much of the match, giving concordia one of their most competitive matches of the nsic season. Wayne state displayed a tenacious defense that kept alive many assumed kills and brought some lengthy rallies into the gangelhoff center.
a cu 10-4 match-opening run came as a result of multiple wayne state hitting errors. emily palkert (jr., excelsior, minn.) and ellie duffy (so., fridley, minn.) put up back-to-back blocks to give the golden bears their 9th and 10th points. From there, however, the wildcats mounted a comeback and forced two rare concordia timeouts along the way. Jennifer hefner closed out a 7-2 wildcat run and gave the visitors their first lead, 21-20. Kills from megan carlson (so., andover, minn.) and sadie kessler (sr., st. Michael, minn.) gave the lead back to the golden bears, while three consecutive wsc errors gave cu their first set point. The wildcats lost the set on a hitting error.
the second set was just as nerve-wracking as the first, finishing with an identical score of 25-23. The defensive display on both sides of the court was especially poignant in the set, but the golden bears claimed the edge with 17 kills to wsc's 11. Several runs with kessler at the service line helped stretch out leads for concordia, while palkert rose up as the top hitter with five kills in the set. mary slinger (sr., faribault, minn.) had a number of outstanding digs and finished the set with nine. The wildcats again made a late run, taking seven of the last 10 points and forcing cu again to use both of their timeouts, but the golden bears outlasted the wildcats with their strength on offense. Palkert closed the set win with the two final kills.
the golden bears handily took the final set by a score of 25-16, hitting .487 with 2 kills.
palkert was concordia's leading hitter with 16 kills. She also had four blocks. Kessler had 13 kills, five digs and two aces. Carlson had an 11-11 double double in kills and digs. Defensively, slinger out-performed all players by chalking up 23 digs. Setter maggie mcnamara (sr., zumbrota, minn.) had 47 assists and seven digs. The team hit .268 on the evening with 58 total digs and seven blocks.
the wildcats put up a .179 hitting average and had 45 digs. The cu hitters slowed down their normally strong blocking game, keeping them to just two on the match. Hefner led her squad with 11 kills, followed by tali fredrickson with 10. Libero leigh cannot had 12 digs.
the golden bear schedule does not let up as they head on the road for a tuesday night match at minnesota duluth. The golden bears now have 64 straight wins and 48 straight nsic decisions.
