ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (29-5) fell to seventh-seeded #11 Wayne State (27-7) in three sets in the NCAA Central Region Championship on Saturday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Wildcats advance to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time in program history as they handed the Golden Bears just their sixth loss in 61 tournament matches as they blocked the Golden Bears from claiming their 10^th region title and eighth national title. The loss dropped CSP to 25-3 all-time on their home floor in the tournament as well.
 
Wayne State finished with five players on the All-Tournament Team including Alyssa Frauendorfer, Courtney VanGroningen, Katie Hughes, Leisa McClintock and Elizabeth Gebhardt while Concordia had three including Kasey Williams, Anna Schlaak and Riley Hanson. Joining those eight on the team were Annie Reilly of Central Missouri, Katy Davis of Central Oklahoma as well as Abbey Thissen and Taylor Reiss of Southwest Minnesota State.


NCAA Central Region Final Concordia vs. Wayne State 12.5.15 - Images by Justin Oakman
 
A team that has historically been known for their strong defense, Wayne State hit an efficient .414 on the night as they racked up 49 kills and committed just six hitting errors in what was a prolific offensive night.
 
WSC also kept the Golden Bears out of system with a strong serving game as they had eight aces compared to three for Concordia. Their defense was also strong as they limited CSP to .224 hitting and forced 12 hitting errors.
 
For Concordia, the duo of Emma Lange and Riley Hanson provided a bright spot as they both collected 12 kills while Lange hit .478 and Hanson added two blocks.
 
Anna Schlaak and Taylor Dordan each contributed double digit digs as Schlaak had 11 and Dordan had 10 while Williams put up 33 assists and seven digs.
 
Taylor Dordan finishes her career in third all-time in digs at Concordia with 1,787 digs as well as fifth in receive percentage at .959 and 11^th in service aces with 107. Heather Schiller also wraps up her career near the top in blocks per set with 1.13, good for fourth, total blocks with 417, good for fifth, and attack percentage at .324, good for seventh.
 
In addition, Riley Hanson finishes her junior season with the highest single-season attack percentage at .414 while also moving into first in career attack percentage at .392.
 
The Wildcats got a balanced effort both offensively and defensively as they had three players in double digit kills as well as three with double digit digs. Elizabeth Gebhardt led the way offensively with 14 kills and a .636 hitting percentage while Courtney VanGroningen led all players with 17 digs. Katie Hughes and Michaela Mestl each put up double-doubles as Hughes had 13 kills and 13 digs and Mestl put up 10 kills and 12 digs.
 
The Golden Bears delivered the first blow in the opening set as they took five of the first six and six of the first eight points to build an early lead, but it wouldn't last long as the Wildcats answered right back with an impressive run of their own. Wayne State pulled even at 8-8 and took the lead at 11-9 as they capped off a 9-3 run to shift the momentum in their favor. WSC kept the pressure on as they extended the lead to four at 15-11 and five at 17-12 and 18-13 before really blowing things open with a 5-0 run to take their largest lead of the set at 23-14. CSP took the next two as they looked to get back in it, but Wayne State shut the door with two in a row to take a 1-0 lead in the match with a decisive 25-16 set win in the first.
 
The Wildcats picked up where they left off in the second set as they started off on a 3-1 run before building a four point lead at 10-6. Concordia battled back to within one with three in a row but they were unable to get over the hump and even it up as WSC had an answer for every run. Concordia remained within three and closed the gap to one four more times by 19-18, but Wayne State pushed their advantage back to three at 23-20 and again at 24-21 as they pulled within a point of building a big 2-0 lead in the match. The Golden Bears responded with a clutch 3-0 run to extend the set, but WSC settled down to claim the final two points to take the set 26-24 and pull within a set of advancing to the Elite 8.
 
The third set was all Wayne State as they took the first five points before quickly growing the lead to double figures at 16-5. CSP pulled within nine at 17-8 but wouldn't get any closer as the Wildcats rolled their way to a dominant 25-10 set win in the third to close out the win.