denver, colo. - concordia's top-ranked volleyball team bumped their record to 5-0 on the season with a commanding 3-0 win over western oregon university (1-4) friday afternoon at the metro/regis premier challenge (25-14, 25-16, 25-16). Most notably in the match, senior maggie mcnamara cleared the 6,000 career assist mark, joining just 17 other setters in ncaa division ii history to reach the plateau. sadie kessler topped cu with 13 of the total 53 kills in the match while mary slinger picked up 19 digs to help hold the wolves to only 22 total kills. The golden bears continue play this evening at 8:30 against tourney host and #23-ranked metro state. box score
although the wolves of western oregon university made a game of things in the first half of the opening set, the golden bears soon bounced back to take a commanding 25-14 win. They were down 8-10 following a streak of attacking errors, but then responded with 15 of the final 21 points. krista erickson served the game out from the 17-point mark, gaining multiple kills from megan carlson and kasey woodcock, as well as a solo stuff from woodcock.
the golden bears continued their streak of points without a sideout well into the second set of the match, going up 8-0 before wou's laura sakala sided out for the wolves for the first time since the 16-point mark of the first set. Concordia's offense continued to be sweltering while western oregon's attacking average barely cleared the .000 mark. The golden bears, led by libero mary slinger and outside hitter carlson, picked up the vast majority of wou's hitting attempts, setting up the perfect plays for the concordia offense. sadie kessler sealed the 25-16 second set win with a kill, taking the feed from setter maggie mcnamara.
it took another comeback effort for the golden bears to take the third set. Woodcock put up her eighth and ninth kills of the set to reclaim a 10-9 lead. Kessler soon went into double figures for kills, terminating the ball from the right side for each of the next four cu points. The golden bears once again stretched out a lead before the match was out, finishing the win with an 8-1 run.
four golden bears finished the match in double figures for kills, led by kessler with a team high 13. Kessler was the leading hitter for the golden bears with 13 in the match. She also had four assists and four digs. Freshman kara pioske reached a new collegiate high with 11 kills, while woodcock and carlson each had 10 kills. Carlson made it a double-double with 12 digs. Mcnamara, who was named the division ii player of the week after averaging 13.23 assists per set, put up a total of 44 assists against western oregon, an average of 14.67. Slinger led all players with 19 digs.
concordia put up a .319 hitting average in the win and dug up 53 balls. The wolves had only 22 kills but improved their hitting average in the final set for a final mark of .111. They had 36 digs.
