tampa, fla. - after their first loss in over two calendar years, the golden bears reacted in fine fashion beating #5 central missouri 3-1 (21-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-23). Concordia (2-1) was led by sophomore cassie haag who had 22 kills on the afternoon and hit at .366 clip. Cu lost set one before winning the next three, concordia's streak of 75 consecutive matches won may have been ended yesterday but the golden bears have won 35 consecutive matches against ranked opponents.

haag was one of four golden bears with double digit kills. Sophomore kara pioske added 13, freshman kayla koenecke added 12 and senior emily palkert added 10. Another freshman erienne lauersdorf had six kills. Haag's 22 kills were a career high for the sophomore whose previous high was 15 last season against upper iowa. Pioske also set a career high for kills as well as both koenecke and lauersdorf. Freshman setter amanda konetchy set a career high with 52 assists on the afternoon as well. Lauersdorf led all golden bears with 17 digs edging out taylor fieldsted who had 16. krista erickson added 10 while freshman cassie weaver saw her first action and helped the cu defense with five digs.

concordia feel behind fairly quickly in the first set falling behind 7-3 and 15-8. Central missouri held a 18-12 lead before cu drew even at 19 at side. After a service error by pioske ucm rattled off three more points to take a 23-19 lead that resulted in 25-21 first set victory for the jennies.

after hitting .171 in the opening set cu got things back under control and hit .368 in the second set to even the match a one set a piece. Concordia once again fell behind early and faced a 6-1 deficit. Cu stormed back and took the lead at 9-8. The golden bears never let the jennies take the lead back and stormed ahead for 19-13 lead and second set win 25-20.

the third set was from start to finish, no team had a lead larger than three points. That lead was fairly late in the set as ucm led 19-16. The golden bears quickly tied it at 19 but the jennies regained the lead. Cu was down 23-21 but thanks to a kill from haag, cu trailed by one. Ucm took a time out but it didn't stop the cu momentum as the golden bears rallied off three straight points to win set three 25-23.

concordia took an early 4-1 lead in the fourth set before the jennies battled back and led cu 13-9 midway through the set. The golden bears tied the match at 15 and the teams traded a few points before concordia took a 17-15 deficit and turned it into a 21-17 lead. From there both teams traded points until concordia forced a ucm timeout leading 23-19. The timeout worked and the jennies rallied to within one. Concordia then took a timeout and were able to keep the pressure up enough to take set four 25-23.

concordia faces #3 tampa the tournament host at 7:15 tonight in the last game for the golden bears on the weekend.