WINONA, Minn. – The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (9-1, 2-0 NSIC) picked up a big early season road victory at #11 Winona State (7-3, 1-1 NSIC) with a four-set win at McCown Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
For the fifth time in 10 matches this season the Golden Bears claimed a win against an opponent ranked inside the AVCA top-25 as CSP also moved to 31-8 in the all-time series against the Warriors.
While the Golden Bears have been forced to grind out wins so far this year, the offense broke out in a big way against the Warriors as Concordia put up their best hitting percentage of the season so far at .385. Winona State also finished the afternoon with a respectable mark in what was an offense-heavy contest in which they finished at .270. Despite winning three of the four sets, CSP held just a 63-61 edge in kills as WSU committed more hitting errors (20-11) and service errors (9-5) in the match. The Golden Bears also held a 64-52 edge in digs and a 6.5-2.0 edge in total blocks.
Entering the night with a solid .356 hitting percentage on the season, sophomore
Sara Macek was nearly perfect on the afternoon as she picked up 15 kills and did not commit a single error on 22 swings to finish with a career-best .682 hitting percentage. Her mark registered in at 16
th best in single-match history at Concordia.
While Macek led the way in efficiency,
Brooklyn Lewis led the way in volume with 16 kills to go along with six digs, four total blocks and a .355 hitting percentage in a full stat line.
Mariya Sampson joined the duo in double figures with 12 kills in the win.
Elizabeth Mohr picked up her third double-double of the season with another impressive line as she finished with 58 assists (14.50 per set) and 10 digs while
Erin Fallert and
Taylor Soine paced the squad with 13 digs apiece.
Danielle Rampart was the focal point of the Winona State offense as she led all players with 18 kills on 50 attempts while McKenna Larsen fell just a kill short of a triple-double with nine kills, 44 assists and 11 digs to go along with four aces in the loss.
The two teams traded points in the early going in the first set before CSP gained control with a 4-0 run to make it 13-9 in their favor. Their lead remained at a comfortable margin later in the set at 21-16, but six straight points for the Warriors gave WSU a 22-21 advantage. Concordia quickly stemmed the tide and scored four of the final five points to take the opening set 25-23.
The Golden Bears got off to a fast start in the second set with six of the first nine points before Winona State responded with five points in a row to take an 8-6 lead of their own. WSU held onto a slim lead until the midway point of the set as they pushed their advantage out to five at 16-11 to give them their largest lead of the set. From there, an 8-2 run the other way put the Golden Bears back out front 19-18, but seven of the final 10 gave the Warriors the set 25-22 to even it up at 1-1 through two sets.
After seeing the Warriors take an early 7-4 lead in the third, CSP evened it back up at 8-8 to set up a back and forth set. The lead did not grow larger than two for either team for the rest of the set as there were 12 more ties before Concordia edged out WSU 25-23 to jump back out front 2-1 in the match.
The fourth set got off to a great start for Concordia with the first three points and six of the first eight going in their favor to build an early lead. That lead would last the duration of the set as CSP kept WSU at arm's length throughout. The lead hit six at 15-9 and eventually grew to eight at 22-14 as the Golden Bears took the set by the same margin at 25-17.
CSP returns to Gangelhoff Center next Tuesday night as they play host to Minnesota State at 6 p.m.
