st. Paul, minn. - concordia university senior mary slinger became the program's all-time digs leader on friday evening, settling in with a grand total of 2,228 career digs at the night's end. The libero surpassed megan graham's mark of 2,214 and the golden bears (29-0, 18-0 nsic) took a speedy 3-0 win over minnesota, crookston (5-23, 2-14 nsic). The team can seal their 7th straight nsic championship tomorrow evening, hosting msu moorhead at 5:00 pm. box score
the defensive standout only needed eight digs to secure her name in the concordia record books, but slinger (faribault, minn.) came alive toward the end of the match and put up 22 digs on the evening. This is the eighth time of the season and third consecutive match in which slinger has recorded 20 or more digs.
the golden bears nailed down their 66th consecutive win with the 25-11, 25-8, 25-12 win over the golden eagles. They continue their hunt toward the postseason, looking forward to two more nsic matches before the ncaa regional tournament fires up. Undefeated on both the season and in nsic play, the squad has a chance to seal its 7th straight nsic championship tomorrow evening. Concordia has already posted four undefeated seasons in the past five years under head coach brady starkey.
the evening's match saw a .340 hitting average from the potent golden bear offense. Sophomore outside hitter megan carlson (andover, minn.) had a team high 15 kills and put up her 16th double-double of the season with 10 blocks. She also had three service aces. Freshman middle cassie haag had a big night with 10 kills and a whopping seven blocks, helping hold minnesota, crookston to a -.081 hitting average, the worst offensive performance by a cu opponent this season. maggie mcnamara (s, zumbrota, minn.) had 38 assists and six digs for the team.
the golden eagles made more than their share of errors in the match. They had 21 hitting miscues along with four early blocking errors and six receiving errors. Amber meyer had the hottest arm for minnesota, crookston, forcing the concordia defense into a number of difficult digs. She led her team with five kills on the night. Ashley allen and shannon cologna each had nine digs.
