SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (33-2) advances to the NCAA Tournament national semifinals with a sweep (25-6, 25-16, 25-13) of eighth-seeded American International (28-7) on Thursday night at Sanford Pentagon. The Golden Bears will face fifth-seeded #18 Lewis (29-7) in the semifinals on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
Concordia improves to 59-6 all-time at the NCAA Tournament as they advance to the national semifinals for the ninth time in program history. The Golden Bears have gone a perfect 8-0 in their previous trips to the semis and have now won 22 straight matches as a part of the Elite Eight field heading into tomorrow's match against the Flyers of Lewis. CSP has also now won 16 matches in a row dating back to mid-October.
In Friday's 7:30 p.m. meeting with Lewis, Concordia will meet the Flyers for the fourth time in the all-time series. The meeting represents the first ever matchup in postseason play as CSP's three wins came in early season tournaments. The two schools will be meeting for the second time this season as the Golden Bears picked up a sweep (25-19, 25-11, 27-25) of the Flyers in the Colorado Premier Challenge back on Sept. 9.
The CSP defense proved to be too much for the Yellow Jackets on the night as the Golden Bears held AIC to a negative hitting percentage at -.064 in the match. Concordia collected 10.0 blocks while allowing just 18 kills as well as forcing 25 attack errors on the night. American International was held to .048 or below in all three sets. The Golden Bears added a 60-48 edge in digs as well.
Offensively, Concordia hit .276 for the night with 40 kills on 105 swings as five players registered in with at least five kills.
Kasey Williams orchestrated the offense with 30 assists to go along with 14 digs to pick up the double-double as she also reached the 1,000 dig plateau. The senior setter entered the night at 992 and joined teammates
Emily McDonough and
Anna Schlaak as the third member of the current team to reach the mark.
One of the main beneficiaries as she led the Golden Bears with 11 kills and a .310 hitting percentage as she fell two digs shy of a double-double with eight.
Emma Lange added nine kills while
Riley Hanson and
Mariya Sampson each had six.
Emily McDonough remained a stalwart in the back row with a match-high 17 digs to lead the way for the team and
Shelby Seurer was a dominant force at the net with eight blocks as well.
Diva Rivas led the Yellow Jackets with seven kills while Mercy Rivera added 16 digs in the loss.
The Golden Bears jumped out of the gates by taking the first five points to force an early AIC timeout and they continued to pour it on from there. After the Yellow Jackets scored their first point, CSP went right back on the attack as they took five more in a row and 11 of 12 to stretch their lead out to 16-2. The lead remained 13 or above the rest of the set as Concordia cruised to take the opener 25-6.
The second set proved to be much more even in the early going with four ties and a pair of lead changes through the first 14 points. With the score tied 7-7, the Golden Bears started to grab a comfortable cushion by claiming the next four points to build the first lead larger than two for either team in the set. American International kept things interesting, however, as they didn't allow the CSP lead to grow past five until late in the set, even cutting it back to within two at 11-9 and again at 14-12. The Golden Bear advantage remained three at 18-15 until they rattled off a 6-0 run before closing out the set 25-16 to extend their lead to 2-0 in the match.
Both teams struggled to gain an edge early again in the third as there were six ties and two lead changes up until the 8-8 point. AIC jumped ahead 5-4 in what would be their lone lead of the set before CSP grabbed the lead for good. The Golden Bears made their run at 8-8 as they took six points in a row and 13 of 14 to expand their lead all the way to 12 at 21-9. Concordia finished it off from there as they won the third set 25-13 to complete the sweep.
