marshall, minn. - for the first time this season the #1 golden bears (21-0, 12-0 nsic) were forced to go five sets after falling behind 2-0 to #9 southwest minnesota state (14-6, 8-3 nsic). Concordia used the ten minute intermission to regroup and won the next three sets to take the match 3-2; 18-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-15, 15-13. katie habeck (farmington, minn.) had a career high nine blocks in addition to ten kills in the match. box score
kayla koenecke (delano, minn.), megan carlson (andover, minn.) and amanda konetchy (victoria, minn.) all had double-doubles in the match. Koenecke had 18 kills to lead the team and tied with carlson with 17 digs for tops on the defense. She also added three blocks. Carlson finished with 16 kills and 17 digs along with four blocks. Konetchy tied her season high with 57 assists and added a season high 11 digs. taylor fieldsted (lakeville, minn.) was the fourth cu player with double digit digs adding 11 in the match. Concordia outhit the mustangs .263 - .241 but the biggest advantage came from the defensive side of the net as cu had 12 blocks to smsu’s three. The 12 blocks is the most by the golden bears in the 2011 season.
the mustangs came out on fire in the first set scoring the first seven points. Smsu held off a cu rally as the golden bears got within three at 13-10. The mustangs put their foot down and reclaimed a 17-10 late in the set. Concordia never got closer than six losing the set 25-18.
smsu was up early in the second set as well holding a 7-3 lead. The golden bears battled to tie the set at 11 and again at 12 a side before the mustangs got some breathing room going up 18-13. Cu tried to climb the hill once more but couldn’t get closer than three losing the set 25-21.
it was the golden bears who took the lead in the third set forcing a smsu timeout up 9-5 early. The mustangs tied the match up at 11 all but cu pushed back taking the lead back and never surrendered it. Southwest minnesota state stayed close but could not get the lead below two until late. Cu held a 22-21 lead and 23-22 before taking the set 25-22.
the fourth set was all concordia as they jumped all over the mustangs. With the score at 6-5 in favor of the golden bears, cu scored 16 of the next 20 points to take a 22-9 lead. The golden bears had two kills from koenecke, duffy, habeck and megan graham (woodbury, minn.). Cu held on to take the set 25-15 and tied the match up at two sets each.
in the fifth set concordia and smsu battled back in fourth. Cu got out to a 5-2 lead early but the mustangs battled back to get within one seven time but never tied the set up as the golden bears took the set 15-13, to win the match.
with the win concordia has now won 43 straight matches, 85 straight regular season nsic matches and 79 straight road wins in nsic play. The comeback meant that brady starkey is still undefeated on the road in nsic play.
photos by justin oakman
