MOORHEAD, Minn. – The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-3, 8-1 NSIC) cruised to a sweep (25-15, 25-19, 25-15) of MSU Moorhead (9-7, 5-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon to finish the weekend on a high note.
Concordia continued to show an ability to follow up a loss with a win as the Golden Bears have not dropped back-to-back matches since falling in their final match of 2014 and their first match of 2015. The last time CSP lost two straight matches in the same season came all the way back in September 2010. Concordia also extended their winning streak to 15 in the all-time series with the Dragons as CSP moved to 30-8 overall and 14-3 in Moorhead.
One day after putting up their lowest hitting percentage of the conference season, the Golden Bears responded with their highest mark of the entire year at .383. CSP tallied an incredible 60 kills (20.00 per set) as they terminated on half of their 120 swings in the match. The defense also held the Dragons to .175 hitting and just 26 kills while collecting a 59-39 edge in digs as well.
Setter
Elizabeth Mohr spread the ball around all afternoon with five different players registering between 19 and 26 swings and all five had at least nine kills. Mohr picked up a massive 52 assists (17.33 per set) to go along with eight digs.
The two middles,
Sara Macek and
Sydney Book, combined to lead the way as they grabbed 15 and 14 kills, respectively, while hitting at an extremely high clip. Macek finished at .520 hitting while Book hit .423.
Brooklyn Lewis was also efficient with 11 kills and a .409 hitting percentage while
Hope Schiller collected double-double and
Erin Fallert fell one kill short of a double-double. Schiller tallied 10 kills and 15 digs while Fallert matched her with 10 kills to go along with 11 digs.
Tori Hanson also reached double figures in digs with 11.
The conference leader in digs, Monica Vega, paced the Dragons with 12 digs while Layla Sanati-Zaker led the team with seven kills in the loss.
After the two teams split the first 10 points of the match, Concordia took control as they pulled away from the Dragons. CSP rattled off 6-2 run to take the lead for good at 11-7 before growing their edge from there. The lead reached double figures at 21-11 following a 10-4 run before the Golden Bears settled with a final differential of 25-15 in the first set.
The Golden Bears picked up where they left off to start the second as they scored the first three points and eight of the first 11 to build a comfortable edge. Concordia expanded their lead to seven at 13-6 as they maintained an edge of four or more for the remainder of the set. CSP and MSUM spent much of the duration of play in the third trading points as the Golden Bears went on to take the set 25-19 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
MSU Moorhead built their largest lead of the day by scoring three straight early in the third to take a 3-1 lead, but the Golden Bears wasted little time in regaining an edge. Concordia put together their biggest run of the day by scoring the next 11 points in a row to turn a two point deficit into a nine point lead at 12-3. The lead hit double figures at 16-5 following another 3-0 run before growing to as many as 14 at 22-8. MSUM managed to shave it to nine down the stretch, but that was all the closer they would get as CSP took the set with a 25-15 to close out the sweep.
Concordia wraps up a three-match road trip on Wednesday night at #5 Minnesota Duluth before returning home to host U-Mary and Minot State on Homecoming weekend.
