denver, colo. - the golden bears (8-0) made it eight straight sweeps on saturday evening sweeping #4 washburn (7-1) 25-20, 25-15 and 25-15. Concordia was lead by megan carlson and cassie haag as the two combined for 29 kills on the night, 15 by carlson and 14 by haag. taylor fieldsted led the defense with 15 digs and haag added six blocks including four solo blocks. The team had 11 blocks in the game marking a season high. box score

the golden bears hit .436 in the match and with just nine errors. kayla koenecke added 11 kills as well and adding nine kills and four blocks. amanda konetchy had 46 assists on the night as cu won their 24th straight set to open up the year. During the eight game stretch cu has beaten five ranked teams including the #2, #4, #9, and the #25 ranked team twice.

carlson was named the tournament mvp. She was joined on the all-tournament team by konetchy and koenecke. It is the second straight year koenecke was named to the metro/regis all-tournament team.

the second and third set saw cu hit .516 and .556 as they flexed their muscles on the way to the sweep. In the match washburn hit .157 and had 19 errors. Washburn hitter branna lewis led their offense as she figured out how to score on cu racking up nine kills and hitting .438.

the first set of the match was a brutal contest as neither team held more than a two point lead until late in the match. There were 17 ties and nine lead changes in the first set alone. Concordia's only breathing room in the set came late in the match at 22-19 forcing a washburn timeout. The timeout did not work out as the golden bears took the first set 25-20, ending the set on a 7-2 run.

set two was a close as well in the beginning with the score tied at six a piece early on. Haag then decided to take over having four kills and a solo block helping the golden bears score nine straight points and took a 15-6 lead. Concordia did not let washburn back in the set as they continued to pour it on increasing their lead to as large as 23-12 before taking the set 25-15.

the third and final set saw a set very similar to the second set, cu held a 7-6 lead early in the set. With the score 8-7, concordia went on a 7-0 run to take a 15-7 lead midway through the set. Carlson and haag combined for four kills and a block during the run. Again the golden bears went on to run away with the set again winning the set 25-15 and taking the match.

next weekend concordia will open up the nsic season hosting northern state at 7:00 p.m. On friday and u-mary at 3:00 p.m. On saturday afternoon.