Kearney, Neb. - third-ranked and second-seeded Concordia University (30-2) advanced to the NCAA Central Regional Championship for the ninth straight-year by defeating seventh-ranked and third-seeded Minnesota Duluth (28-4) in straight sets (25-21, 15, 22) on Friday evening at the health sports center hosted by the university of Nebraska-Kearney. Concordia will be one of 16 teams still standing as they seek a fifth-straight Ccaa Championship. They'll play the fifth-seeded and ninth-ranked Southwest Minnesota State on saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. box score | press conference | photo gallery | watch live | live stats
Following the sweep brady starkey said, "we were aggressive and our serve receive along with our setter (konetchy) gave us a chance to go up and take good swings."
The great passing and konetchy's play is evident by the zero serve receive errors and a .252 attack percentage against the 10th ranked team in nation.
Kayla Koenecke (delano, minn.) had ten kills and Ashley Murtha (apple valley, minn.) had nine to lead the offense. Megan Carlson (andover, minn.) and Taylor Fieldsted (lakeville, minn.) had 18 and 10 digs respectively. The two also each had three aces as CU racked up nine total in the match. Concordia's block was also key in the match with ten blocks, six by Katie Habeck (farmington, minn.) and four by koenecke.
After the match, carlson was asked about the great defense and responded, "we understand we have to play defense if we want to win, we need to keep the ball up and give our offense a chance to score."
Minnesota Duluth's Jim Boos talked about how concordia battles and fights hard, saying, "there is a reason they are the four time defending national champions."
UMD's Hannah Johnson explained further, "everyone on their (CU) team is poison, they keep balls alive and take hard swings."
In the third and final set there was an example of Concordia's will to always play hard. With the score at 23-21, freshman ashley murtha was blocked to pull umd within one, following a timeout she came right out and terminated a ball to give CU a 24-22 lead and give the momentum back on the concordia side.
After the match, she explained the sequence by saying, "it was the final few points of the set, there is no time to back down and wimp out. You have to go up and think i am going to kill this ball, i am glad i was able to put that one down."
In the first set the golden bears were up 8-7 before a block by Haag and koenecke gave cu some breathing room at 9-7. Concordia maintained the lead until umd scored three straight to tie the set at 14 all. Concordia had a 17-14 lead and looked to lock up the set as ellie duffy (fridley, minn) ran down a kill attempt and kept the ball alive before habeck sent a ball to the floor giving cu a big four point lead at 18-14. The bulldogs pulled within one on two occasions before cu pulled out the 25-21 set one win.
The bulldogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but CU rattled off six straight to take a 6-3 lead on back to back aces from carlson. Umd tied the scored at seven and it remained a back and forth battle as cu held a 15-14 lead midway through. A kill by Haag and a Minnesota Duluth attack error gave cu a 17-14 lead. UMD got a kill to make it 17-15 but the golden bears defense stepped up big at the end of the set making it the last point UMD scored in the set. Concordia had two aces, forced four attack errors and had a block to take the set 25-15.
Concordia had a 4-1 lead in the third set before umd rallied back to tie it seven once again. The bulldogs held a 10-8 lead as they looked to force a fourth set. Konetchy did her best to not let happen with a slick kill to give cu the lead at 13-12 dumping the ball after a back and forth rally. Minnesota Duluth again pulled ahead at 15-13 and did not let cu take a lead until koenecke gave them a lead at 21-20. Moments later habeck and murtha teamed up for a big block forcing a umd timeout with the score 22-20. After the timeout the golden bears got a little bit of fortune as a kill attempt from umd went off the shoulder of carlson, then went over the net and fell to give cu the point. Minnesota duluth pulled within one at 23-22 forcing a cu timeout. Following the break, cu got a kill from murtha and habeck to finish off the bulldogs giving cu the sweep.
The win was the 26th straight NCAA tournament win and put CU in the regional championship for the ninth straight season. They will play Southwest Minnesota State tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m.
