DENVER, Colo. – The top-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (5-0) remained unbeaten with a dramatic five-set win (25-12, 23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 17-15) over Florida Southern (3-1) on Friday afternoon in the Colorado Premier Challenge. The Golden Bear winning streak is now at 11 dating back to last season.
 
Concordia survived a scare as they fell behind 11-6 in the fifth set but bounced back to claim the deciding set 17-15. The match proved to be a grind-it-out affair with CU hitting .227 and FSC hitting .148 in the match with each squad committing 29 attack errors.
 
Setter Kasey Williams was dynamic for the Golden Bears as she supplied a career-best 58 kills (11.60 per set) and 20 digs (4.00 per set) along with three kills on three attempts as well as an ace in the match. Her 58 assists were the most by a CU setter since November 16^th of last year.
 
Riley Hanson supplied a solid two-way performance with a career-high 20 kills and a .444 attack percentage along with five total blocks. Fellow middle blocker Heather Schiller was also effective with 17 kills with a .308 attack percentage. Emma Lange nearly picked up her first career double-double with 15 kills along with eight digs as well.
 
Defensively, the combo of Lisa Atkinson and Taylor Dordan once again put together a strong performance in the back row. Atkinson's 21 digs represented a career-high while Dordan also chipped in 15. Anna Schlaak also contributed double-digit digs with 10 to go along with nine kills.
 
The Mocs force-fed the ball to Kate Stromberg who led the team with 22 kills and 12 digs on a match-high 71 attempts as no other FSC player had more than half as many attempts. Kendall Marotti also finished in double digits in both kills and digs with 11 and 14, respectively.
 
The first set was all Golden Bears as CU cruised to a 25-12 victory. Florida Southern hung around early in the set as they trailed 12-10, but Concordia closed it out on a 13-2 run to take the 1-0 lead. Lange was on a roll in the early going as she collected six kills on just seven attempts in the set.
 
Florida Southern responded in the second set by building a lead as large as six at 19-13. CU eventually took the lead back at 21-20 before the Mocs grabbed five of the final seven points to claim the set 25-23 and even the match. The Golden Bears saw a nearly .350 point drop in their hitting percentage from their first set as they went from .429 in the first to just .085 in the second.
 
Concordia controlled the third set from start to finish as they never trailed throughout. The lead got as large as eight at 23-15 as CU pulled within a set of closing it out with a 25-19 win. Schiller led the way in the set with six kills.
 
The Golden Bears held a lead through the early parts of the fourth set as well but saw it disappear during a 5-0 FSC run midway through to make 17-14 in favor of the Mocs. CU evened it up at 21 but Florida Southern put together another run to extend it to a fifth set with a 25-21 win.
 
Facing a fifth set for the first time this season, the Golden Bears found themselves in a quick 9-4 hole. The Mocs maintained a five point lead at 11-6 but Concordia wouldn't go away as they scored five straight and seven of eight to grab a 13-12 lead. 15 points didn't prove to be enough as the two teams traded points until kills from Heather Schiller and Anna Schlaak closed it out.
 
The Golden Bears are back on the court tonight at 6:00 p.m. in a matchup between the top two teams in the land as they take on #2 Tampa (4-1).