TAMPA, Fla. – The #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (3-0) stayed unbeaten in the 2017 Terrace Hotel Classic with a four-set win over Central Washington (2-1) on Saturday afternoon. CSP and CWU split the first two sets (25-23 and 21-25) before the Golden Bears took the final two sets (25-19 and 25-17) to close out the win.
In a battle between the two lone undefeated teams on the first day of the tournament, the Golden Bears improved to 3-0 in the all-time series against the Wildcats. CSP previously grabbed sweeps back in 2008 and 2015 against CWU. The win also extends CSP's overall winning streak to 22, dating back to the middle of last season.
While the offense played the key role in Concordia's two opening day wins, the defense came through in Saturday's first contest. The Golden Bears held Central Washington to .106 hitting for the match, including .023 in the third set and .079 in the fourth to close out the victory. The defense forced 29 hitting errors while picking up 75 digs and 12.0 blocks. By comparison, CSP committed 19 hitting errors while CWU had 69 digs and 8.0 blocks. Concordia also doubled up the Wildcats in service aces at 6-3, but also committed three times as many service errors at 9-3.
For the third straight match, it was a different Golden Bear leading the way in kills as
Sara Macek surpassed her previous career-best of 16 kills with 19 against CWU. The sophomore was very efficient with a .483 hitting percentage to go along with five blocks in the win.
Hope Schiller added a career-high of her own with 16 kills as she fell one dig shy of a double-double with nine as well as two aces and two blocks.
CSP's blocking was spread fairly even as six different players registered at least two blocks, led by
Shelby Seurer's seven. Setter
Elizabeth Mohr was one of the six as she collected two blocks to go along with 51 assists, eight digs and a pair of kills.
In the back row, the trio of
Erin Fallert,
Tori Hanson and
Taylor Soine split the load evenly as all three put up at least 15 digs. Fallert's 18 digs led all players in the match while Hanson paced all players with three service aces to go along with her 15 digs. Soine matched Hanson with a career-high 15 digs as well.
Shelby Mauritson was the lone Wildcat to finish with double digit kills as she claimed a team-high 13 while she also tied for the team lead with 17 digs to grab the double-double.
The Golden Bears jumped ahead early in the first set and built a solid lead but were forced to withstand a late surge from the Wildcats to take the set. CSP grabbed five of the first seven points and eventually used a 5-0 run to extend an 11-9 lead to 16-9 midway through the set. The lead remained at five at 20-15 until CWU jumped ahead 22-21 with a 6-1 run, but Concordia rebounded to win the set 25-23.
The second set began in much of the same way as Concordia built an early 6-3 advantage before holding a slim lead until the later stages of the set. CWU tied it up three times in the middle of the set and eventually took their first lead of the set at 17-16 following a 4-1 burst before the lead changed hands four more times over the next few points. The Wildcats delivered one more push as they scored five of the final six to claim the set 25-21 and tie the match at 1-1.
After falling behind 4-2 in the third, CSP embarked on an extended 12-3 run to double up Central Washington at 14-7. CWU responded with a 9-2 run of their own to tie it up at 16-16, but the game of runs continued from there as the Golden Bears cruised to a 25-19 set win with a 9-3 burst to take a 2-1 lead heading to the fourth set.
After early runs for both sides to kick off the fourth set, including a 7-1 Golden Bear run to make it 8-5, the score sat even at 9-9. Concordia started to pull away, building a five point advantage at 18-13, but the Wildcats fought back to close the gap to two at 19-17. It was all CSP from there as the Golden Bears scored the final six points to win the match with a 25-17 set win in the fourth.
Concordia concludes action in the 2017 Terrace Hotel Classic tonight at 6 p.m. against #17 Tampa in a rematch of the 2010 and 2012 NCAA title matches.
