DENVER, Colo. – The second-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (4-2) rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the match to defeat MSU Denver (3-3) in four sets (23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-18) on Friday night at the Colorado Premier Challenge.
With the win, the Golden Bears advance to the gold bracket semifinals tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. CSP will face a fellow Central Region school in #14 Central Missouri in that match with the winner advancing to the championship match tomorrow night at 8 p.m.
Concordia moves to 6-0 all-time against the Roadrunners with four of the wins coming in the Colorado Premier Challenge. Overall, CSP has won 18 of 21 sets against MSU Denver.
It was a bit of a grind for the Golden Bear as they bounced back from hitting .175 or below in each of the first two sets before clearing .395 or better in the final two. CSP finished the match at .295 while MSUD put up a mark of .175. Concordia also held a 65-50 edge in kills and a 71-55 edge in digs while MSU Denver had four aces to CSP's three and 7.0 total blocks to CSP's 6.0.
The trio of
Hope Schiller,
Brooklyn Lewis and
Erin Fallert did much of the heavy lifting on the offensive end as they combined for 49 of the team's kills on the night. Schiller led the way with 18 kills while she also chipped in eight digs on the night and Lewis followed close behind with 16 kills. Fallert collected her second career double-double as she surpassed her previous career high with 15 kills to go along with 14 digs in a big performance.
Tori Hanson provided a big performance of her own as she finished two digs shy of her career best with 23 digs to lead all players in the win.
Elizabeth Mohr also reached double figures in digs with 11 as she picked up her first double-double of the season with 50 assists as well.
Taylor Duryea paced the MSUD offense with 14 kills while Santaisha Sturges and Stephanie Laraway joined her double digits with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Sturges finished off the double-double with 13 digs.
The Golden Bears scored the first two points of the match and fought to maintain a slim lead throughout much of the opening set, but the Roadrunners remained within striking distance throughout. MSUD briefly took a 5-4 lead, but that was their lone lead until the closing moments. CSP was unable to build an advantage larger than two until the 16-13 mark, which proved to match the largest lead of the set. Concordia held a three point lead again at 22-19, but the Roadrunners answered with a big 6-1 run to steal the set with a score of 25-23, giving them their largest lead of the set.
The MSU Denver run continued into the second set as they ran out to a quick 5-1 run. The Golden Bears responded by slowly chipping away until three straight points gave CSP their first lead at 10-9. The two teams traded points until MSUD regained a two point edge at 19-17, but Concordia responded again with five points in a row to take a 22-19 lead and force an MSUD timeout. CSP forced set point at 24-20 before finishing it off at 25-22.
Concordia led by as many as three in the first few points of the third set before the two teams spent much of the middle portion trading leads. Between the 8-8 mark and the 14-14 mark there were six ties as neither team was able to take control. CSP finally turned the tide with a 3-0 run before pushing their lead to four at 20-16. The Golden Bears used another 3-0 run to close out the set as they took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-19 set win in the third.
The Golden Bears and Roadrunners looked to be headed to a fifth set after MSU Denver stormed out to a 7-2 lead to begin the fourth. CSP started to chip away at the deficit from there, but the lead for MSU remained at three at 14-11. Concordia shifted the momentum dramatically from that point on as they scored 10 in a row to turn a three point deficit into seven point lead at 21-14. The Golden Bears took the set by the same margin as they closed out the win with a 25-18 set victory.
