saint paul, minn. - #1 concordia (14-0, 5-0 nsic) kept up their winning ways in 2011 extending their match winning streak to 36 and their home winning streak to 56 with a sweep of #6 southwest minnesota state (10-4, 4-1 nsic) on tuesday evening, 25-18, 25-18, 25-12. kayla koenecke (chaska, minn.) had a double-double going for 11 kills and 11 digs on the night. megan carlson (andover, minn.) was close behind going for nine kills and tying for the team lead in digs with 14. box score
taylor fieldsted (lakeville, minn.) tied carlson for the team lead in digs with 14 on the night. ellie duffy (fridley, minn.) had eight kills from the outside. cassie haag (plymouth, minn.) returned to the lineup to lead cu with four blocks, one solo. amanda konetchy (victoria, minn.) had 36 assists on the night along with five digs. katie habeck (farmington, minn.) was second on the team with three blocks as well as adding six kills.
the golden bears jumped out to a 9-3 lead forcing a mustang timeout early in the first set. Habeck had two kills and cu took advantage of two service errors and three attack errors. The timeout turned the momentum in the favor of smsu as they climbed back in the set trailing by just two at 11-9. With the score at 12-10 in favor of concordia, the golden bears scored six of the next eight to open up an 18-12 lead. The mustangs never got closer than four as cu took the first set 25-18. Duffy had four kills and koenecke led the defense with six digs in the first set.
concordia got off to a hot start in set two as well, scoring the first four points and forcing another early timeout. The golden bears maintained the lead at 9-4 until the mustangs went on a run scoring six straight to take a 10-9 lead. Cu took the lead back at 12-11 and did not relinquish the lead again. The mustangs got close at 17-16 but a service error followed by an ace from erienne lauersdorf (watertown, wis.), and then three consecutive attack errors meant cu had a 22-16 lead late in the set. Concordia went on to win the set 25-18 thanks to five kills from koenecke in the set. After two sets errors were the story for smsu as they had more service errors, 8, than the golden bears errors in both serving and attacking, 7, combined.
the third set was controlled by concordia from start to finish as they took a big 10-3 lead early and never let off the pressure. Smsu got within four at 10-6 but could not get over the hump as cu got three straight kills from carlson to go back up 14-7 midway through the set. Errors continued to plague the mustangs as concordia took the set 25-14. Carlson led the way with six kills and six digs in the set. Fieldsted had seven digs in the third set to lead the defense. Concordia also had four blocks in the set.
this saturday the golden bears will host st. Cloud state at the gangelhoff at 4:00 p.m. In a nsic battle. It is the only conference match of the week for cu as they play host to their travel partner.
