duluth, minn. - for the first time since the 2008 national championship match, the #1 golden bear volleyball team was pushed to a five set decision. The team proved they were battle-tested, however, taking a 3-2 win from their biggest rival, #16 minnesota duluth (24-26, 25-21, 25-23, 21-25, 15-10). The victory holds concordia's record winning streak intact at 65 matches. box score
heading into the match, the golden bears (28-0, 17-0 nsic) knew they would face a bulldog (19-7, 12-4 nsic) offense that rivaled their own power and a defense that had the skill set to make highlight reel tapes in their own right. After being deflated with a swift 3-0 decision against the golden bears in september, the bulldogs headed into tuesday night's match determined to make the golden bears sweat a bit this time around.
the bulldogs were successful in holding concordia to a .204 hitting average, their second lowest mark of the season. But cu, with some of the best defenders in the game, held minnesota duluth to a lower .201 mark.
the match was bitterly contested from the start with a tied score at 14-14 in the first set. The golden bears worked their way to a set point at 24-21 before minnesota duluth came alive and used their blocking to take the 26-24 win. The bulldogs finished the first set with back-to-back blocks.
concordia answered with consecutive set wins to go up 2-1 in the match. They jumped out with a .400 hitting average in set two, putting away 10 kills without an error. The ball was spread out evenly among all five of cu's hitters, which helped to keep the bulldog defense guessing.
the fourth set saw the greatest disparity in score with minnesota duluth leading by as many as seven points, 17-10. It was concordia's worst offensive set as umd middle alyssa nelson disrupted cu hitters with four blocks in the 25-21 umd win.
the golden bears made a trademark comeback in the final set, winning the first point behind a sadie kessler (sr., st. Michael, minn.) and cassie haag (fr., plymouth, minn.) block and never looked back. Kessler and haag joined up for another key block to stretch out a 13-9 lead and force the bulldogs into a timeout. They golden bears finished the match with a 6-2 run to seal the win, their sixth straight over the bulldogs.
concordia's leading hitter on the night was outside hitter megan carlson (so., andover, minn.) with 16 kills and 12 digs. Middle emily palkert (jr., excelsior, minn.) tabbed 14 kills, followed by haag with 12. The team narrowly edged out umd in kills, 61-59.
every player on the court had their work cut out for them defensively, but senior mary slinger (faribault, minn.) and sophomore taylor fieldsted (lakeville, minn.) drew the most digs with 20 and 17 each, respectively. Slinger is now only eight digs away from the cu all-time digs record and fieldsted's effort was a career high. Haag had her hand in five of cu's eight blocks.
maggie mcnamara (sr., zumbrota, minn.) had a 52-assist, nine-dig night as the leader of the golden bears.
the bulldogs were led by april hansen with 19 kills and alyssa nelson with 16. Anna zyvolski had a 10-kill, 15-dig double-double performance. Setter eleena iisakka came away with 51 assists and nine digs to go with three service aces. The bulldogs managed to ace concordia's pristeen passers seven times in the match.
concordia returns to the comfort of the gangelhoff center this weekend to host minnesota, crookston and msu moorhead. Friday's match starts at 7:00 pm and gives cu a chance to clinch their seventh straight nsic championship.
