SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (34-2) advances to the NCAA Division II Volleyball National Championship for the ninth time in program history with a sweep (25-18, 25-16, 25-18) of fifth-seeded #18 Lewis (29-8) on Friday night at Sanford Pentagon. The Golden Bears will face sixth-seeded #9 Alaska-Anchorage (34-2) for the national title tomorrow night at 5 p.m.
Concordia moves one step closer in claiming their eighth NCAA title in the last 10 years as they improved to 9-0 in national semifinal contests. Overall, the Golden Bears move to 60-6 in the NCAA Tournament and 25-2 as a part of the Elite Eight field. Dating back to 2007, the Golden Bears have gone a perfect 23-0 in the final three rounds of the tournament. In their eight previous trips to the title match, CSP has rattled off seven consecutive wins (2007-13) with their lone loss coming back in 2003.
On the other side of the net on Saturday evening will be an opponent that the Golden Bears have faced just once before in the Seawolves of Alaska-Anchorage. CSP took down the Alaska-Anchorage in four sets in the lone previous meeting back on Sept. 13, 2008 in the Concordia Volleyball Tournament. The championship match marks the first ever postseason meeting between the two schools. The Golden Bears are no strangers to facing top-10 teams in the country as the championship will be their 16
thmatch this season against an opponent inside the top-10. CSP has picked up 13 wins in the previous 15 contests.
While the Golden Bears rode their defense to victory in the quarterfinals, it was the offense's turn to shine in the semis as the team hit an efficient .402 with 48 kills on 97 swings on the night. Three different hitters finished with at least 11 kills as
Kasey Williams spread the ball well in the win. Williams finished with 39 assists with six digs and three blocks on the night.
Emma Lange led the team with 14 kills and .462 hitting percentage with three digs and a pair of blocks while
Anna Schlaak added another double-double to her collection with 13 kills and 11 digs as well. Schlaak also hit at a high percentage with mark of .455.
Rounding out the players in double digits in kills was
Mariya Sampson with 11 kills and a .409 hitting percentage while
Emily McDonough matched Schlaak with 11 digs in the winning effort.
Maddie Seliga provided a bright spot with the Flyers with a team-high 10 kills and eight digs as she hit .333 in the loss. Elizabeth Hyland added six kills and eight digs as well.
The teams traded points early in the first as the score remained even at 5-5, but the Golden Bears began to pull away from there. CSP grabbed the next six points and 13 of the next 15 points to grow their lead all the way to 18-7 in the opening set. The Flyers rebounded from there as they took the next four points and pulled within six at 20-14, but they were unable to pull any closer. The two teams traded points back and forth the rest of the set as Concordia closed it out 25-18.
The second set featured a similar storyline as Concordia got things going after an even start. The Flyers held the CSP lead to two until the 10-8 mark, but the Golden Bears started to pull away from there with three in a row to make it 13-8. Lewis took the next two to get it back to three before another 3-0 run extended it to 16-10 in favor of CSP. The lead wouldn't shrink below four the rest of the way for the Golden Bears as the Flyers threatened a few times but were unable to cut the gap. Concordia finished strong with five straight points to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-16 set win in the second.
The Golden Bears got off to a much faster start in the third set as seven of the first 10 and 10 of the first 14 went in their favor as they built a quick six point advantage. Lewis managed to bring it to three at 10-7 and 11-8, but that was all the closer they would get in the set as CSP took control from there. The hovered between five and seven the rest of the way as the Golden Bears completed the sweep with a 25-18 set win in the third.
