DULUTH, Minn. – The third-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (14-4) fell in straight sets (24-26, 23-25, 21-25) to #5 Minnesota Duluth (15-3) in non-conference play on Wednesday night.
The loss dropped CSP to three games below .500 in the all-time series with UMD at 25-28 while they fell to 10-14 in 24 trips to Duluth. The Bulldogs also snapped the Golden Bears' recent dominance in non-conference play in the series as Concordia had won four straight since the 2014 NSIC Tournament in St. Paul.
The Bulldog offense was impressive throughout the night as they hit .250 or better in all three sets to finish the match at .295 while limiting CSP to .225 on the night. UMD also held a 49-40 edge in kills and a 52-44 edge in digs to go along with a 12.0-7.0 edge in blocks as they controlled most aspects of the match.
Continuing her recent run of form,
Sara Macek put up another solid offensive performance as she reached double figures in kills and hit better than .450 for the fourth match in a row. The middle blocker tallied 11 kills on just 16 attempts for a team-best .562 hitting percentage on the night. She also paced the squad with four blocks as well.
Brooklyn Lewis joined Macek in double figures with a team-high 12 kills while
Hope Schiller added seven and
Erin Fallert chipped in six. Schiller also had 11 digs while Fallert had 11.
Tori Hanson led the team with 12 digs and three aces from the libero position while CSP's setter,
Elizabeth Mohr, put up 37 assists and six digs in the loss.
Minnesota Duluth put together a pretty even effort offensively as four different players had at least nine kills, led by Makenzie Morgen's 13. Morgen also added eight digs and four blocks while Kate Berg nearly had a double-double with 10 kills and nine digs as well as three blocks and two aces.
CSP came out firing with an 8-3 run to start the match to force an early UMD timeout, but the Bulldogs quickly responded to tie it up with five straight points. The Bulldogs grabbed the lead at 13-12 in the first of five lead changes in an eight point span. With the Golden Bears back out front at 16-15, Minnesota Duluth responded with a 6-2 run to take their largest lead of the set at 21-18. Concordia answered with a run of their own as they evened the score three times late, including at 24-24, but UMD grabbed the final two points of the set to win it 26-24.
With the score even at 5-5 early in the second set, Concordia took control with three straight points to give themselves a small cushion. The Golden Bears maintained a three point edge at 14-11 before the Bulldogs came storming back. Minnesota Duluth scored five points in a row to take a 16-14 lead, but the lead would be short-lived as a 5-1 run put CSP back out front at 19-17. Concordia remained out front at 23-22, but UMD finished strong with a 3-0 run to win the set 25-23 and put the Golden Bears in a 2-0 hole.
For the third set in a row, it was the Golden Bears that built a quick lead as they hammered out six of the first eight and eight of the first 11, but Minnesota Duluth once again had an answer. Down five at 9-4, the Bulldogs strung together a 6-0 run to take the lead at 10-9. The run continued as UMD rattled off another 4-1 run to make it a 10-1 run overall to push it to 14-10. The Bulldogs continued to hold Concordia at bay as they maintained a lead of three or more until the closing points. The UMD lead grew to as many as six at 23-17 before CSP cut it to two at 23-21, but Minnesota Duluth held on to complete the sweep with a 25-21 set win in the third.
CSP returns home for homecoming weekend as they play host to UMary on Friday and Minot State on Saturday. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.
