ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (23-4, 17-2 NSIC) grinded out a tough four-set win over Sioux Falls (13-15, 5-14 NSIC) on Friday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
It was a struggle offensively for the Golden Bears as they hit .233 or below in the first three sets before breaking out with a massive .652 hitting percentage in the final set. Overall, CSP ended up with a .291 hitting percentage with 47 kills and 13 hitting errors.
The defense made the difference for Concordia as they limited USF to just a .157 hitting percentage for the match, including below .100 for each of the first two sets. The team finished with 11.0 blocks as they also forced 27 hitting errors.
Riley Hanson was a big part of the defensive effort as she fell one block shy of her career high with a match-high eight. In addition, she also matched
Emma Lange with a team-high 11 kills on the night. Hanson hit .290 while Lange hit .348.
Anna Schlaak and
Anna Pioske were also productive as Schlaak collected 10 kills and eight digs while Pioske put up nine kills and a team-best 15 digs.
Kasey Williams had her streak of four straight double-doubles snapped as she finished the match two digs shy with 40 assists and eight digs.
Makenna Rockeman paced the Cougars with a match-best 13 kills while Abby Folk led all players with 19 digs.
Despite the offense not firing on all cylinders, the Golden Bears rattled off nine of the first 11 points of the match to build a comfortable lead. Concordia continued to keep a distance between themselves and Sioux Falls as they didn't allow USF to pull closer than five the rest of the way. CSP slowly extended their lead as it eventually reached 11 at 22-11 before the Cougars battled back to make it a 25-17 final in the opening set.
After the two teams traded points early on in the second set, it was Sioux Falls that took the advantage. USF built a six point lead at 15-9 and again at 16-10 before CSP completely took over with a massive 14-0 run to take a 24-16 lead for themselves. Sioux Falls grabbed a point before Concordia matched the first set final at 25-17.
The Cougars were determined to extend the match in the third set as they quickly grew their lead to eight with a 10-2 run to kick things off. The Golden Bears were unable to get much going as the USF lead reached nine at 14-5 and 12 at 22-10 as well as 23-11. CSP strung together six of the next seven points but it was too late as Sioux Falls closed it out 25-17 to force a fourth set.
The fourth set began much in the same way as the third as USF ran out to a 7-2 lead right off the bat. This time the Golden Bears responded with six in a row to take the lead before steadily pulling away. The lead reached eight at 18-10 and didn't shrink below six the rest of the set as Concordia closed it out 25-16.
The #1 Golden Bears will wrap up the regular season tomorrow on Senior Day in a massive matchup with #2 Southwest Minnesota State in a match that could determine the host site of the NSIC Tournament.
