Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

Box Score

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FULL VIDEO REPLAY  ||  PHOTOS COURTESY NCAA PHOTO / Conrad Schmidt

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The #3 Concordia Golden Bears (35-3) claimed their record-setting seventh consecutive NCAA Division II Volleyball National Championship on Saturday night, defeating #4 BYU-Hawaii (29-2) in straight sets (25-15, 25-14, 25-20) at the US Cellular Center.
 
The Golden Bears set longest streak of consecutive national championships at any level in volleyball.  The record was shared with Washington University (St. Louis) at the Division III level between 1991 and 1996.  The streak is also tied for the fourth longest Division II championship streak in any women's sport.
 
Their seven total titles are more than any other DII program, with the next closest being Portland State (4) while Barry University and West Texas A&M each have three titles.
 
The win improves Concordia's NCAA Tournament win streak to 42 consecutive matches, as its all-time NCAA Tournament record improves to 52-4 in 11 appearances. Concordia now holds a 7-1 record in national championship games, all coming in 11 years under head coach Brady Starkey. They have reached the Sweet Sixteen in each of those 11 seasons.

The Golden Bears dominated throughout the entire tournament as they hit .384 and held opponents to just .197 hitting.

A big contributor was a first-time champion Riley Hanson, who finished the match with 15 kills and a ridiculous .636 hitting percentage.  Hanson, along with Emily McDonough led the Golden Bears with 37 kills in the tournament.  McDonough had 12 kills along with six digs in the match.  Defensively, Taylor Dordan was a rock, picking up a match-high 20 digs for CU.

Senior Kayla Koenecke finished off her illustrious collegiate career with eight kills and 13 digs along with a .438 hitting percentage.  She finished off her career as the career leader in hitting percentage at .392 as well as 1663 kills, third all-time.  Koenecke also finished fifth in points (1949), sixth in service aces (127), sixth in digs (1424), eighth in total blocks (284), and eighth in assists (429).

Senior setter Amanda Konetchy also finished off her dominant career at Concordia with 43 assists and 10 digs to pick up a double-double.  She finishes 13th in NCAA Division II history with 6189 assists and 10th with 13.08 assists per set.  Her assists and assists per set go down as third-best in school history.  She led the nation in assists per set each year in a Golden Bear uniform.

BYU-Hawaii outside hitter Shih Ting (Stella) Chen, the tournament leader in kills with 67 kills, had nine kills to lead the Seasiders.  Setter Ying Chun (Michelle) Chen had 20 assists but BYU-Hawaii was held to just .135 hitting in the match.



The first set began as a back-and-forth match through the early going as the Seasiders hung tight with the Golden Bears.  BYU-Hawaii held a 7-6 lead before three straight point for CU gave them the lead for good.  A 6-1 run pushed the lead out to six at 15-9 as Concordia began to pour it on.  The lead eventually hit double digits at 24-14 as the Golden Bears closed it out 25-15.

The two middles for Concordia provided the offense with four kills each in the opening set.  Hanson put home four of her five attempts in the set.  Konetchy was very involved in the action with assists on 15 of the 16 Golden Bear kills.

The second match once again began with the two teams trading points, but a 14-4 CU run turned a 7-7 tie into a 21-11 lead.  The Seasiders scored three of the next four before the Golden Bears closed it out 25-14 to pull one set away from a seventh straight title.

Hanson continued to be unstoppable in the second set, picking up six kills on seven attempts.  Concordia hit an unbelievable .517 in the set compared to just .235 for BYU-Hawaii.

Erh Fang Hsu led the Seasiders with four kills in the set.

The third set almost exactly followed the script of the first two as Concordia once again blew open a 7-7 tie as they scored seven straight to double up BYU-Hawaii 14-7.  The lead hit eight at 22-14, but the Seasiders refused to go away as they responded with a 4-0 run of their own.  They remained four down going into match point as Kayla Koenecke fittingly closed it out 25-20 with her final kill, coming from Konetchy, setting off the celebration.

For the Golden Bears, Amanda Konetchy, Kayla Koenecke, Emily McDonough and Riley Hanson were all named to the All-Tournament Team.