ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fourth-seeded #8 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (22-8) fell to fifth-seeded Sioux Falls (20-9) in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears will now await their fate to see if they will earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the 16th consecutive season. The NCAA Volleyball selection show will be streamed online on Sunday, Nov. 11 at 9 p.m. on NCAA.com.
CSP drops to 23-6 in their 11 trips to the NSIC Tournament while also dropping to 10-1 in opening round matchups. Concordia also dropped their second match to USF in a week and a half as they fell to 10-5 in the all-time series.
While the Golden Bears finished with a higher hitting percentage (.296-.264), more digs (59-50), an even number of blocks (6.0-6.0) and nearly as many kills (56-58), serving proved to be the difference as Sioux Falls finished with a large 9-3 edge in service aces. The whole team got into the act for the Cougars as six different players registered aces on the night.
In the loss,
Hope Schiller put together a massive statistical night as she led the team with 17 kills and 18 digs to go along with three blocks as she hit .417.
Brooklyn Lewis,
Kennedy Brady and
Leah Damerow all joined Schiller in double figures in kill with 10 apiece while
Tori Hanson picked up 19 digs and
Erin Fallert added 10. Lewis's 10 kills brought her career total to 999 as she sits just one away from reaching 1,000.
Elizabeth Mohr surpassed the 50-assist mark once again as she finished at 53.
Bria Barfnecht proved to be a handful for the Golden Bears for the second time in as many meetings as she led all players with 18 kills while committing just one error for a .531 hitting percentage. She also chipped in nine digs as well as two aces. Lexi Scott, Abby Feyereisen and Makenna Rockeman all reached double figures in kills as well for the Cougars.
The Cougars put CSP in an early hole by scoring the first four points of the match, but the Golden Bears quickly flipped the script. Still down four at 8-4, the Golden Bears rattled off a 6-1 run to take the lead at 10-9. Following a 3-0 burst for USF, Concordia answered back with four in a row to regain the lead. Concordia pushed their lead to three at 17-14 and held a small advantage until the 23-20 mark before Sioux Falls delivered the decisive blow with a 5-0 run to win the opening set 25-23.
With the two teams splitting the first 10 points of the second set, the Golden Bears pulled ahead with a 3-0 to make it 8-5. A 4-0 run a few points later turned a 10-8 lead into a 14-8 lead as CSP started to pull away. With the Concordia lead still at six at 19-13, the Cougars cut it in half with three straight, but it would be short-lived with the next three going to the Golden Bears. The lead would not shrink below five the rest of the way as Concordia evened the match at 1-1 with a 25-19 set win in the second.
Sioux Falls shifted the momentum back in their favor with a 4-1 run to start the third set before maintaining that lead for much of the set. With USF holding a two point lead at 9-7, CSP took their first lead since the 1-0 mark at 10-9 with a 3-0 run. The two teams alternated scoring the next 13 points as Concordia was unable to push their lead larger than one before the Cougars regained the lead at 17-16. USF added to their lead a few points later as a 4-0 run gave them their largest lead of the set at 23-18. The Golden Bears managed to chip away to within two at 23-21 before USF took the final two to win the set 25-21.
Concordia was the first to build much of an advantage in the fourth as they took a three point lead at 9-6 before holding it there until the 13-10 mark. USF responded with four of the next five to tie it up before seeing seven more ties throughout the rest of the set. With CSP out front 19-18, the Cougars took complete control with two in a row to jumpstart a larger 7-2 run, capped by back-to-back aces, to win the set 25-21 and win the match 3-1.
