DENVER, Colo. – The second-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (6-2) cruised to a sweep (25-16, 25-22, 25-17) of eighth-ranked Southwest Minnesota State (5-3) to claim their sixth Colorado Premier Challenge title on Saturday night.
The Golden Bears picked up their sixth tourney crown in the past 11 years as CSP previously claimed the top spot in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2016. In addition, Concordia flipped last year's result in the tournament championship as the Mustangs knocked off Concordia in four sets. The Golden Bears also moved to 35-25-1 in 61 all-time meetings with Southwest Minnesota State with the win.
CSP dominated from start to finish as they held SMSU to .094 hitting while compiled a .250 hitting percentage themselves. The Golden Bears also had advantages of 43-28 in kills, 7-2 in service aces, 54-44 in digs and 6.0-4.0 in total blocks.
Concordia was well represented on the All-Tournament Team as
Brooklyn Lewis,
Hope Schiller and
Elizabeth Mohr all earned the honors.
Lewis paced the squad with 14 kills in the match while Schiller collected a double-double with 12 kills and 13 digs. Lewis collected a massive 70 kills (4.67 per set) with a hitting percentage of .393 while Schiller tallied 4.07 kills per set and 2.53 digs per set.
Mohr put together an solid effort with 36 assists and six digs as she brought her tourney total to 199 assists (13.27 per set) and 31 digs (2.07 per set).
Tori Hanson led the way with 18 digs as she finished the weekend with 76 digs (5.07 per set) while
Erin Fallert had eight kills and nine digs.
It was a tough night for the 2017 AVCA Player of the Year as SMSU's Taylor Reiss was held to .081 hitting with nine kills and seven digs in the loss. Emma Thomssen finished with 26 assists as well.
After falling behind 2-1 to open the match, Concordia hammered out six straight points to take an early 7-2 lead. The Golden Bears kept the Mustangs at bay for much of the rest of the set as the lead remained at four or more throughout. An extended 8-4 run doubled the advantage from four to eight as CSP took a 19-11 lead. Concordia's advantage eventually hit nine as they finished off the set comfortably at 25-16.
Southwest Minnesota State looked to turn the momentum with four of the first five points of the second set, but the Golden Bears quickly shifted it back in their favor with five in a row to take a 6-4 lead. That proved to be the decisive lead as SMSU was unable to even the score or take the lead the rest of the way. A 3-0 run midway through the set pushed the lead to five at 16-11 before growing to as many as six at 19-13 before the Mustangs started to chip away. SMSU pulled within two with four straight points and stayed within three the rest of the set, but that would be all the closer they would get as Concordia took it 25-22 to go up 2-0 in the match.
Concordia quickly jumped back out front to start the third set as they built a 6-2 lead. Southwest Minnesota State closed the gap to two at 9-7 following a 4-0 run, but CSP pushed their lead back to six following another 6-2 run. The lead remained steady throughout the rest of the set as their lead grew to as many as nine at 24-15 before they settled with a 25-17 set win to complete the sweep.
The Golden Bears open up NSIC play next week as they head to Upper Iowa on Sept. 6 before returning to St. Paul for their home opener on Saturday against Winona State.
