Box Score ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (26-1, 18-0 NSIC) clinched at least a share of its 11th consecutive NSIC regular season title with a sweep of Minnesota Crookston (13-13, 8-10 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center.
Concordia has won the regular season crown all 11 seasons under head coach
Brady Starkey. In the 10 year span coming into this season the Golden Bears have finished with a perfect record in conference play six times, a feat they will look to duplicate next weekend at St. Cloud State and #3 Minnesota Duluth.
The winning formula on Saturday, as it has been for much of the season, was a balanced attack and stellar defense. Concordia hit .355 as a team in the match, while holding the Golden Eagles to just a .119 attack percentage.
Erienne Lauersdorf paced the Golden Bear attack with 15 kills while hitting .458 and
Kayla Koenecke put up her 16th double-double of the season with 13 kills and a match-high 17 digs.
Amanda Konetchy joined Koenecke with a double-double of her own with 49 assists and 10 digs in the match. Middle blockers
Riley Hanson and
Heather Schiller were also active on the offensive end with 10 and nine kills, respectively.
A bright spot for UMC came from Maggie Perrel, who finished the match with eight kills and did not commit an error.
The Golden Eagles gave Concordia everything they could handle in the first set, forcing nine ties and four lead changes. CU built an 8-4 lead but had it erased as UMC evened the score at 12 apiece. Crookston eventually took the lead at 15-14 and again at 16-15 but were unable to hold it. The Golden Eagles kept the Golden Bear lead at one at 22-21 but Concordia closed out the match scoring three of four to take the first set 25-22.
CU struggled to find a rhythm in the first, committing seven attack errors, two receive errors and two service errors and hitting only .211 in the first.
The second set was a different story as the Golden Bears used a 7-0 run to get out to an early 10-3 lead on the shoulders of
Erienne Lauersdorf. She had five of the seven kills in the run and had eight kills on ten attacks in the set. The lead ballooned out to as much as 12 at 19-7 as CU took a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-13 win in the second.
The Golden Bears bounced back to hit .417 compared to .088 for UMC and received 18 assists from Konetchy in the set.
An 8-0 run in the third turned a 3-3 scored into an 11-3 advantage for Concordia as they ran away with the third and final set. Another 6-0 run midway through the set extended the lead to 17-5 and the Golden Bears took the set 25-10.
The attack percentage continued to climb in the third for CU with the Golden Bears hitting .444 in the final set. Hanson and Koenecke each had six kills in the set.
Concordia will look to win the conference outright next weekend as they hit the road. The Golden Bears need one win to claim it outright and two wins to finish the NSIC slate a perfect 20-0.
