ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (22-2, 14-2 NSIC) survived for a dramatic five-set victory over #13 Northern State (16-8, 9-7 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Bears responded to set losses in the first and third to win the second and fourth before claiming the fifth.
Concordia improved to 31-8 in 39 meetings with the Wolves as they made it 20 in a row at home and 28 of 29 overall against Northern State with the win. CSP's win, coupled with UMD's win over SMSU, also moved the Golden Bears into a three-way tie for first place in the NSIC as the Golden Bears, Bulldogs and Mustangs all sit at 14-2 in league play with four matches to play.
In what was a crazy night statistically, the team finished with a tie for the eighth-most kills in program history with 84 kills as the team took 183 swings to finish with a hitting percentage of .328 on the night. The Wolves weren't far behind with 68 kills on 169 attempts and a .296 hitting percentage. CSP also held a 74-70 edge in digs, 8.0-7.0 edge in blocks as well as a 78-62 edge in assists. The match featured a whopping 41 ties and 16 lead changes on the night.
It was a career night for several CSP players as
Kasey Williams set a career high in assists,
Emily McDonough set a career high in digs, and
Sara Macek and
Mariya Sampson set career highs in kills.
Williams' 72 assists shattered her previous career best of 66 set back in 2014 as her mark tied for sixth-most in program history and was five shy of the program history. She also added seven digs.
McDonough surpassed her career high of 22 digs by an incredible nine digs as her 31 digs led all players in the match by 14. Her 31 digs was the most in program history since 2011 and tied for the fifth-most in a five-set match at CSP.
Mariya Sampson also set a new career best with 20 kills to lead all players as
Sara Macek chipped in a career-best 16 with a .636 hitting percentage.
Riley Hanson and
Anna Schlaak chipped in massive kill totals with 18 apiece as Schlaak also added 17 digs to give her nine double-doubles on the season.
Kellie Schmit led the Wolves with 17 kills while Lauren McCafferty double-doubled with 13 kills and 10 digs in the loss. Setter Ashley Rozell also had a double-double with 57 assists and 14 digs.
The Wolves put the pressure on the Golden Bears in the first set as they turned an early 6-5 CSP advantage into an 11-7 NSU lead with a 6-1 run before extending it midway through the set. After the lead shrunk to three at 12-9, another 5-1 run saw the Northern State lead grow to 17-10 as they began to pull away. Concordia eventually battled back in it with a big 6-0 run to cut it to 23-22 while burning both NSU timeouts, but it was too little too late as the Wolves took the final two points to win the opening set 25-22.
The second set featured back-and-forth play with 11 ties and five lead changes as neither team was able to build a comfortable advantage. It was CSP that jumped out first as they led for much of the set up until 9-7 before five of six went in favor of Northern State to make it 12-10 with the Wolves in front. Their lead eventually hit four at 17-13 and 18-14, but the Golden Bears once again fought their way back to tie it up at 21-21. Concordia jumped back in front at 23-22 and forced set point at 24-23 before NSU forced one of their own at 25-24. CSP pushed the Wolves to set point again at 26-25 and 27-26 before closing it out 29-27 to even the match at 1-1.
Concordia built off of the set win in the second as they grabbed five of the first seven in the third, but it was a short-lived lead as Northern State evened it up at 8-8. The lead traded hands on several occasions from there as the set had 13 ties and five lead changes overall. With the score tied at 18-18, CSP took the next two points to take a 20-18 lead only to see NSU answer right back with two of their own to tie it back up. Another two points brought the CSP lead to 22-20, but the Wolves surged with a 5-0 run to win the set 25-22 to head into the fourth set holding a 2-1 lead into the fourth.
Northern State came out firing in the third set as they jumped out to a 5-2 lead before CSP took over. The Golden Bears rattled off seven of eight to build their own three point lead before extending it to five at 14-9. Concordia continued to pour it on from there as the lead hit double figures at 21-11 following a 6-0 as they cruised to win the set 25-14 and force a decisive fifth set.
The fifth set was another evenly matched set in which the lead changed hands frequently as the teams went back and forth trading points. The Wolves made the first real run of the set as they strung together three points in a row to go ahead 8-6, but CSP responded with three in a row to take the lead back at 9-8. After the Wolves tied it up twice more, the Golden Bears grabbed three straight to take a 13-10 lead and force NSU's second timeout of the set. The Wolves fought back and extended the match, but CSP closed it out with a 17-15 set win in the fifth.
The Golden Bears are back on the road next weekend as they hit the road to #1 Minnesota Duluth on Friday before travelling to St. Cloud State on Saturday.
