KEARNEY, Neb. – The third-seeded #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (26-7) advanced to the NCAA Central Region semifinals with a dramatic five-set victory (27-25, 22-25, 26-24, 19-25, 15-8) over sixth-seeded #5 Washburn (27-4) on Thursday afternoon at Health & Sports Center.
Concordia will face the winner of second-seeded #6 Minnesota Duluth and seventh-seeded #9 Central Missouri tomorrow night at 5 p.m. with the winner booking a spot in Saturday's region title match.
The Golden Bears improved to 70-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 15-0 in region quarterfinal matches as they reached the semifinals for the 17
th time in program history.
For the second consecutive year, the Golden Bears and the Ichabods needed five sets to determine the outcome in the region tournament as CSP flipped the script this season to come out on top. The win moved Concordia to 4-2 in six meetings with WU.
"It was a scrappy match," said head coach
Brady Starkey. He added, "We grinded it out and caught fire in the fifth game which was helpful."
While the two teams were extremely even statistically over the first four sets, the Golden Bears held the Ichabods to just -.167 hitting in the final set while hitting a match-best .250 themselves. Overall, CSP finished the match at .172 with 61 kills while WU fell one kill short with 60 while hitting .138. Concordia also grabbed 4.0 of their 14.0 blocks in the fifth set as they held a 14.0-11.0 edge for the match as well as a 90-85 edge in digs in the win.
Tori Hanson put together one of the best statistical performances of her career as she fell one dig shy of her career best with 33. Her mark was also the second highest total in the 25-point scoring format at CSP.
Makenna Berger matched a career high with 15 digs as well.
Jasmine Mulvihill made it 20+ kills in four of the past six matches and nine times on the season as she paced the squad with 20 points on 50 attempts. She added 14 digs and five blocks to pick up her ninth double-double on the year.
Erin Fallert added her own double-double, her 19
th of the year, with 15 kills and 14 digs to go along with three blocks and two aces on the day.
Sydney Book also reached double figures with 13 kills in the match.
Senior
Sara Macek played a big role in the success of the block as she was one of six CSP players to register at least two blocks, leading all players in the match with seven total blocks. She also added nine kills with a .333 hitting percentage in the victory.
Kelsey Gordon and Allison Maxwell each finished with 18 kills while Allison Sadler added 51 assists and 12 digs in the loss for Washburn.
Concordia opened with the first three points of the match and held a three-point advantage until a 3-0 run the other way tied it up at 6-6. The Ichabods grabbed their first lead of the day at 9-8 before two points in a row put CSP back in front, but WU quickly regained the lead with seven of the next nine to take a 16-12 lead. The Washburn held a slim lead for much of the rest of the set and forced set point at 24-22, but the Golden Bears stayed alive with back-to-back points to even the score at 24-24. WU forced one more set point with a kill before Concordia completely shifted the momentum of the match with a 3-0 run to win the set 27-25.
After a back and forth start that saw the score even at 6-6 in the second set, the Ichabods embarked on a 5-0 run to start to take control. The Golden Bears spent much of the set chipping away at that lead as they cut it to one at 14-13 before tying it up at 17-17. A 4-1 burst a few points later gave Washburn a 23-20 before CSP trimmed it back to one, but they were unable to get over the hump as WU held on to take the set 25-22 and tie the match at 1-1.
Concordia bounced back with a strong start in the third set as they scored four of the first five points and six of the first eight to build an early advantage. It proved to be a game of runs from there as WU responded with a 4-0 run to tie it before CSP took the lead right back with a 4-0 run of their own. The Golden Bears clung to their lead until the Ichabods evened it up again at 18-18 and took the lead at 22-21. That lead proved to be short-lived as CSP rattled off three in a row to force set point at 24-22, but Washburn once again answered to tie it with the next two points. Back-to-back kills slammed the door, however, as the Golden Bears took their second set in extra points at 26-24.
The early portion of the fourth set featured eight ties and three lead changes as the two teams jockeyed for the lead until an 8-2 run put Washburn ahead 16-10. Concordia managed to cut the deficit in half at 17-14 to force a WU timeout, but that would be all the closer they would get as the Ichabods cruised to win the set 25-19 to send the match to the fifth set.
The Ichabods jumped out to a 3-2 lead to start the fifth, but it was all Golden Bears from there. Concordia cruised past Washburn with four points in a row and eight of nine to make it 10-4. The lead would not shrink below four the rest of the way as they went on to win the set 15-8 and the match 3-2.
