ABERDEEN, S.D. – The Concordia University volleyball team (25-4, 18-2 NSIC) battled back from a 2-0 deficit to knock off Northern State (19-9, 12-8 NSIC) in the regular season finale on Saturday night. The Golden Bears stormed back to win the final three sets to win their final NSIC match of the regular season.
Anna Schlaak finished off a tremendous weekend with another 20-10 performance as she broke her career high set last night with 24 kills to go along with 12 digs and three blocks. She hit .404 as she collected her 12
th double-double of the year.
Kasey Williams also finished with a massive line as she set a new career high with 62 assists along with 14 digs to also collect her 12
th double-double of the season.
Emma Lange,
Riley Hanson and
Heather Schiller also finished in double figures in kills as Lange had 13, Hanson had 12 and Schiller had 11. Amazingly, Schiller also had a double-double as she added a career-best 10 blocks (two solo and eight assists) in the match.
Alex Duxbury and
Taylor Dordan also made an impact with 15 digs apiece. The 15 digs were easily a career high for Duxbury.
Mariya Sampson also picked up 12 digs while falling a kill short of a double-double with nine.
The Golden Bears and Wolves had nearly identical hitting percentages as CU hit .261 while NSU hit .257. Concordia was able to hold a significant advantage in the blocks category again as the team finished with 14.0 blocks compared to 7.0 for Northern State. They also held the edge with six service aces compared to four.
The Wolves were led by Kelsey Chambers and Cari McGarvie as each finished with 20 kills as Chambers also added 17 digs. Drew Smith had a nearly identical line as Williams as she finished the match with 62 assists and 13 digs.
The Wolves got off to a quick start grabbed an early 10-6 lead in the first set. Concordia shrunk the lead to two at 11-9 but a 5-1 run for NSU pushed the lead to 16-10 and the Golden Bears were unable to get back in it. The lead reached as large as seven on several occasions as the Wolves closed out the set 25-18.
The second set was far more back-and-forth as the first three-point lead came at the 14-11 mark and it came in favor of the Golden Bears. Northern State responded by building a 20-16 lead with a 9-2 run but an 8-2 run the other way put CU in position to win the match with a pair of set points. They were unable to close out NSU as the Wolves rallied from three different set points to win the set 29-27 and put CU on the brink of being swept.
The Golden Bears faced an uphill battle in the third set as NSU once again built a 10-6 lead in the third. Concordia pulled back even at 17-17 and eventually took the lead at 24-19 with seven straight points en route to winning the set 25-21 and extending the match to a fourth set.
Concordia was determined to force a decisive fifth set as they did not trail once in the fourth set. The Wolves didn't make it easy on them though as they didn't allow the Golden Bears to build a lead larger than five points. Northern State was able to cut it to a pair at 22-20 but the teams traded the final five points as the Golden Bears won the set 25-22 to erase the 2-0 deficit in the match and extend the match to the fifth.
The fifth set proved to be a very dramatic conclusion to the match with 10 ties and three lead changes in the set. CU opened up the set with four out of the first five points to force an NSU timeout but it quickly became a dogfight as the Wolves evened it right back up at four. Neither team was able to build a lead larger than two the rest of the way as the result was very much up in the air until the final point. Northern State gained their first lead of the set as they forced a set point at 14-13. With their backs against the wall, the Golden Bears responded with four out of the next five to win the set 17-15 and the match 3-2.
The Golden Bears wrapped up the second seed in the NSIC/US Bank Tournament and will face the seventh seed (either Northern State or Minnesota State) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center.
