WAYNE, Neb. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (10-2, 4-0 NSIC) made it 12 straight set wins to start the NSIC season with a sweep (25-22, 25-21, 25-10) of #18 Wayne State (9-3, 2-2 NSIC) on Friday night.
The Golden Bears continued to make life difficult on their opponents as they extended their streak to 21 consecutive sets won overall, including all 12 in conference action. CSP also made it 32 wins in the last 37 meetings with the Wildcats as they improved to 33-12 in the all-time series with WSC.
It was a fairly dominant performance across the board for the team as they held large advantages in nearly every statistical category. Concordia finished at .313 hitting, their highest mark of the season, while limiting Wayne State to .174. The edge in hitting led to a 43-27 edge in kills as well as a 49-37 edge in digs. The Golden Bears also put up their best serving performance of the year with a season-best 11 aces while the Wildcats finished with three.
Brooklyn Lewis accounted for nearly a third of the team's kills as she finished the night with 14 kills and a .435 hitting percentage in just 23 swings in an impressive effort in the win.
Sara Macek was even more efficient as she hit .692 with no errors while collecting nine kills.
CSP saw a trio of players reach double figures in digs as Hope Schilled paced the squad with 14 digs,
Tori Hanson added 12 and
Erin Fallert chipped in 10. Schiller added three aces, two blocks and five kills while Hanson had two aces and Fallert had eight kills.
Elizabeth Mohr joined in with a strong serve as she tallied three aces to go along with her 38 assists.
Payton Nutter finished with two aces while
Taylor Soine added one more to round out the team total of 11.
Katie Stephens was the top offensive performer for the Wildcats with nine kills while Alyssa Ballenger led with 10 digs in the loss. Megan Gebhardt collected 24 assists and four blocks as well.
The Golden Bears looked primed for a strong start with four of the first five points of the match, but the Wildcats quickly responded with a 7-1 run to build a three point lead of their own. Wayne State held CSP at bay throughout the middle portions of the set as they held a small advantage until the 18-15 mark when Concordia shifted the momentum in their favor. CSP flipped a three point deficit into a two point lead with five straight points before WSC temporarily rebounded with a 3-0 run, but five of the final six went to the Golden Bears as they took the set 25-22.
After an even start in which the two team split the first 12 points of the second set, Concordia took control with a 7-1 run to take a 13-7 lead. A 9-2 run a few points later gave the Wildcats a lead of their own at 18-17, but CSP grabbed the lead right back with four straight points. The Golden Bears held off any potential runs from there from Wayne State as they finished off the set comfortably with a score of 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Concordia wasted little time putting it out of reach in the third and final set by scoring the first four points as a part of a larger 14-3 run to build a double-digit edge. The lead did not shrink below nine as the Golden Bears continued to tack onto to their advantage as they finished off the sweep strong with a 25-10 set win in the third.
The Golden Bears wrap up their three-match road trip tomorrow afternoon with a 2 p.m. start against Augustana.
