ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia University volleyball team (21-3, 14-2 NSIC) continued their winning ways by picking up their sixth straight win with a sweep of Minnesota State (14-9, 10-6 NSIC) on Tuesday night.
The match represented the Golden Bears' annual Dig Pink Night as the team wore pink in honor of breast cancer awareness. The team delivered a solid effort as they committed just eight attack errors on the night while hitting .354 and held the Mavericks to a .168 hitting percentage for the match. In what has been a common theme this season, CU dominated in the blocks category with 9.0 compared to 2.0 for Minnesota State.
Anna Schlaak provided 15 of the Golden Bears' 42 kills with an impressive .412 hitting percentage along with eight digs.
Mariya Sampson was the only other Golden Bear in double figures in kills with 11 as she also hit an efficient .524.
Kasey Williams had a relatively uneventful evening as she only needed 35 assists to guide the offense to victory.
Taylor Dordan continued her recent solid play with a match-high 16 digs as well.
Sydney Powell was a strong performer for the Mavericks as she matched Schlaak's total of 15 kills as no other MSU player had more than eight. Ellie Van De Steeg also chipped in 35 assists.
CU set the tone from the opening serve as they quickly built a 7-2 lead in the first set. The Mavericks battled back to cut the lead to one at 12-11 but the Golden Bears proved to be too much to handle as they used a 5-0 run to build a comfortable cushion. They held that cushion for the rest of the set as they cruised to a 25-20 set win.
The second set got off to a bit of a more even start as it remained a one point differential at 10-9 before four straight for CU pushed it to 14-9. Concordia held a small lead before eventually stretching it to six with a final score of 25-19.
The Mavericks built their largest lead of the match at 9-7 to open the third set but Concordia erased it with a 6-0 run and they never let up. The lead reached six at 16-10 and again at 23-17 as Concordia rolled past Minnesota State 25-21 to claim their sixth straight win.
Concordia remains home this weekend as Minot State and U-Mary travel to St. Paul for the final two NSIC regular season home matches.
