ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (0-1) dropped their season opener to #15 Palm Beach Atlantic (1-0) in five sets in the Holiday Inn and Suites Lake Elmo Volleyball Clash.
 
CSP quickly built a 2-0 lead in the match but saw it slip away as PBA won the final three sets to claim the victory in their first ever meeting with Concordia. The loss marked the first season-opening loss for the Golden Bears since a 2008 loss to CSU San Bernardino, which CSP followed up with a 75-match winning streak.
 
Palm Beach limited the strong Concordia attack to a .179 hitting percentage, including a mark of .032 in the final set. The Sailfish also out-blocked the Golden Bears 15.0-9.0 in the match.
 
Concordia-St. Paul used a balanced attack as five different players finished in double digits in kills, led by 16 from Anna Schlaak and 14 from Riley Hanson.
 
Emily McDonough was busy after nearly a year off the court as she picked up a double-double with 10 kills and 19 digs. Kasey Williams also produced a double-double with 52 assists and 18 digs while Taylor Dordan contributed a match-best 22 digs.
 
Heather Schiller and Emma Lange rounded out the offensive output as Schiller hit .391 with 10 kills along with seven blocks and five digs while Lange hit .333 with 11 kills and six blocks.
 
The duo of Faith and Ally Rohn paced Palm Beach Atlantic as Faith produced a match-high 20 kills to go along with 17 digs while Ally had a triple-double with 14 kills, 25 assists and 15 digs as well as five blocks.
 
Sarah Ragland nearly produced an impressive double-double as she finished with nine kills and 10 blocks.
 
The Golden Bears opened the season with a burst as they grabbed the first three points before settling in for a battle in the rest of the set. The Sailfish fought back to take the lead at 8-7 using a 7-2 run but they wouldn't lead the rest of the way as CSP scored the next three to regain the advantage. Palm Beach Atlantic managed to tie it back up at 12 and again at 21 and 22 but Concordia-St. Paul pulled away to claim the first set win of the year by a score of 25-22.
 
The second set started off much in the same manner as CSP took the early lead at 6-3 before the PBA erased that lead and went ahead 8-7. The lead for the Sailfish eventually reached 12-10 but it wouldn't last as the Golden Bears dominated the rest of the set by taking the next seven points and 15 of the final 19 to claim a 2-0 lead with a 25-16 set win.
 
Palm Beach Atlantic showed some resilience in the third set to extend the match and avoid the sweep. Concordia led by as many as two on four different occasions but were unable to close out the match as the Sailfish took the lead for good at 18-17. Neither team was able to build much of an advantage for most of the set as it featured 11 ties. CSP held their final lead at 14-13 before an 11-5 run in favor of PBA pushed their lead to their largest at 24-19. The Golden Bears took two points back but the Sailfish closed it out 25-21 to force a fourth set.
 
Concordia-St. Paul ran out of the gate to build a comfortable lead at 10-5 to begin the 4^th set but once again the Sailfish were able to chip away and take a lead of their own. The Golden Bears still held the lead at 14-11 before Palm Beach Atlantic used eight of the next nine points to go up 18-15. The lead wouldn't shrink below three the rest of the set for PBA as they completely erased a 2-0 deficit to push the match to the full five sets with another 25-21 set win.
 
The Sailfish carried that momentum into the fifth as they quickly surged ahead to an 8-2 lead. CSP wouldn't make it easy as they picked up the next five points to cut the deficit to 8-7. The lead remained one for PBA at 10-9 but four of the next six in their favor increased the lead to 14-11 and brought them to within one point of finishing off the comeback. The Golden Bears picked up the next two points to make things interesting but a Jen Cook kill closed out a 15-13 set win for Palm Beach Atlantic.
 
The Golden Bears will take on another team for the first time ever tonight at 5 p.m. as they take on Central Washington (0-1). The Wildcats dropped their opener this afternoon to Winona State (1-0). WSU and PBA will close out the night at Gangelhoff Center with a start time of 7:30 p.m.