TOURNAMENT WEBSITE || PRESS CONFERENCES: Concordia | SMSU
DULUTH, Minn. – The second-seed #3 Concordia University volleyball team (27-6) was eliminated by third-seed #4 Southwest Minnesota State (23-9) on Friday night in the NCAA Central Region semifinals at Romano Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth. SMSU advances to face the winner of Minnesota Duluth and Wayne State in the championship tomorrow at 7 p.m.
The Golden Bears had their streak of seven consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships and 43 consecutive tournament wins snapped in the four-set loss. The loss also ended Concordia's streak of reaching the regional championship match (Sweet Sixteen) in 11 straight seasons. Concordia is now 53-5 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 11-1 in the regional semifinals dating back to the first tournament appearance in 2003.
"They stepped up and took big swings when it mattered,"
Brady Starkey said of SMSU's performance. He went on to say, "I hope we can learn from this as we have all of our kids back except for one. We are going to use this as a learning experience about we felt in those situations."
The Mustangs did a tremendous job of limiting the Concordia offense to just a .169 hitting percentage while hitting .263 themselves. CU controlled play at the net with 18 blocks while SMSU had just eight, but it wasn't enough to overcome SMSU's offensive advantage.
Anna Schlaak led the Concordia offense with 15 kills to go along with five digs while
Emma Lange and
Riley Hanson joined her in double figures with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Hanson also contributed a massive nine blocks while Lange finished with eight.
Taylor Dordan led the team with 14 digs and
Kasey Williams added 11 to her 43 assists for her 14
th double-double of the season.
Lisa Atkinson capped off her collegiate career with eight digs as well.
The first set was a hard fought battle as the two teams traded blows throughout much of the set. CU used a 4-0 run to build a 7-6 lead but the Mustangs bounced back to take a three point lead at 12-9. Concordia closed the gap to one at 14-13 but the Mustangs pushed it to four at 20-16. The Golden Bears were unable to shrink the lead below three the rest of the way as SMSU claimed the first set 25-21.
The Golden Bears got off to a strong start in the second set by collecting eight of the first 11 points. A 5-1 run in favor of the Mustangs made it 9-8, but a 7-2 run for CU pushed the lead out to six at 16-10. SMSU pulled back even at 18 which forced Concordia to burn two quick timeouts. The score remained tied at 20 before CU used three points in a row to make it 23-20. The Mustangs pulled within one again at 24-23 but it was too late as Concordia won the set 25-23 and evened up the match.
Neither team was able to create much separation in the third set which featured 12 ties and eight lead changes as the Golden Bears created their first comfortable lead at 16-13. The Mustangs responded with six straight points to take a 19-16 lead of their own. CU had the deficit down to one at 23-22 but SMSU grabbed the final two points to win the set 25-22 and head into the fourth set with a 2-1 lead.
The Mustangs forced a quick CU timeout with a 6-2 start in the fourth set. Concordia battled back to even it up at nine before three straight points for SMSU made it 12-9. Concordia eventually grabbed the lead at 18-17 but was unable to hold on. The Mustangs put the Golden Bears on the brink of elimination at 24-23 but Concordia fought off a pair of match points to take a 26-25 lead. SMSU responded with three in a row to close out the match by a score of 28-26.
The loss to the Mustangs was Concordia's first to SMSU since November 18, 2012 snapping a three game winning streak. Concordia is 28-4 against SMSU the 2002 season.
2014 NCAA Central Region All-Tournament Team- Michaela Mestl, Wayne State
- Katie Hughes, Wayne State
- Riley Hanson, Concordia
- Kasey Williams, Concordia- Ashley Hinsch, UMD
- Monica Turner, UMD
- Sydnie Mauch, UMD
- Kenzie Beekman, SMSU
- Whitney Burmeister, SMSU
- Sarah Parker, SMSU
- Eisha Oden, SMSU
- Abbey Thissen, SMSU
