MARSHALL, Minn. – The third-ranked Concordia University volleyball team (19-3, 12-2 NSIC) came from behind to knock off the fifth-ranked Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs (16-6, 11-3 NSIC) in five sets (23-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17, 15-7) on Friday night.
The Golden Bears battled back from two different deficits as they lost the first and the third sets and came back to pick up a crucial NSIC win over SMSU. The Golden Bears dominated the efficiency aspect of the game by hitting .321 compared to .184 for the Mustangs. SMSU had nearly twice as many attack errors with 32 while CU had just 18 as a team as the Concordia completed the sweep.
CU deployed a balanced attack with four different players finishing with at least 13 kills.
Mariya Sampson led the way with 15 kills to go along with seven digs as she fell one kill and dig short of her career high.
Riley Hanson,
Emma Lange and
Anna Schlaak all added 13 digs with Hanson hitting an especially impressive .591 in the match and Schlaak chipping in nine digs.
Kasey Williams was at the helm at setter as she tied her career-high with 58 assists along with seven digs in the win.
Taylor Dordan was a force in the back row as she led the team with 17 digs.
The two middle blockers for SMSU paced their offense as Eisha Oden led the team with 18 kills and six blocks while Sarah Parker finished with 16 kills and five blocks.
The first game set the tone of the entire match as it featured seven ties and three lead changes in what was a battle throughout. The Golden Bears had the upper hand in much of the early portion of the set before the Mustangs surged ahead with an 8-2 run to make it 23-21 en route to a 25-23 set win.
Concordia bounced back with seven of the first nine points in the second to claim an advantage they wouldn't give up. The lead reached seven on several occasions before SMSU trimmed it to three at 20-17 but a 5-0 CU run closed it out to even the match at 1.
After the break, the Mustangs came out firing to quickly build a 9-3 lead. Concordia clawed their way back for the rest of the set to cut it to one at 23-22 and again at 24-23 but Southwest held to take it 25-23 and pull within a set of winning the match.
The Golden Bears turned it on from there as they held a comfortable lead throughout the fourth set and pulled away to take the set 25-17. SMSU trimmed the lead to two at 19-17 but Concordia ran away with the final six points to force a deciding fifth set.
The momentum carried over into the fifth set as CU built a 7-2 lead and never looked back as they claimed the final set 15-7 to pick up the huge road win in dramatic fashion.
Concordia will look to continue their strong play tomorrow as they travel to Sioux Falls to take on the Cougars at 4 p.m.
