KEARNEY, Neb. – The third-ranked and third-seeded Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (27-7) advanced to the NCAA Central Region Championship with a sweep (25-22, 25-21, 25-17) of sixth-ranked and second-seeded Minnesota Duluth (25-7) on Friday night at Health and Sports Center.
For the fifth season in a row and 16
th time in the past 17 years, the Golden Bears will play for a region title as they improved to 71-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. CSP has gone 11-5 in their 16 previous region championship matches, including 1-1 in their two previous trips to Kearney. Concordia will face the winner of #2 Nebraska-Kearney and #8 Northern State tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
Concordia holds a 3-0 record all-time against the Lopers, with all three wins coming in the region tourney, and they have gone 34-9 all-time against the Wolves.
While the Bulldogs claimed the two regular season meetings in convincing fashion, it was the Golden Bears that came out on top in both postseason matches between the two schools as CSP followed up their five-set win in the NSIC Tournament semifinals with the region sweep. Concordia moved closer to even in the all-time series with UMD as they improved to 28-30 in 58 meetings.
"I thought we did a good job of serving tough and getting them out of system," said head coach
Brady Starkey. He added, "We also did a good job of being up and aware of what they were trying to do, and our kids got up and took some aggressive at important times."
It was mistake-free volleyball that gave Concordia the edge on the night as they committed just eight hitting errors while collecting 43 kills to tally an efficient .315 hitting percentage on the night. Minnesota Duluth actually finished with three more kills at 46, but were unable to match the efficiency as they were forced into 24 errors to finish at .177. Concordia's block played a role in that as they collected 8.0 blocks compared to 2.0 for UMD. CSP also made life tough on the Bulldogs with their serving as they consistently put UMD in difficult positions while also grabbed a 3-0 edge in service aces.
Erin Fallert was effective all the way around for the Golden Bears as she led all players with 14 kills, 10 digs, two blocks and an ace while hitting .433. She was joined by
Jasmine Mulvihill in double figures in kills as Mulvihill finished a dig shy of a double-double with 11 kills and nine digs.
Tori Hanson put in another solid effort with a match-best 14 digs to go along with four assists while both CSP setters spread the ball around well as
Payton Nutter put up 21 assists and
Ellie Veldman added 17.
Emily Balts registered a double-double for Minnesota Duluth with 39 assists and 12 digs while Abby Thor finished with a team-best 12 kills in the losing effort.
After seeing the Bulldogs score the first two points of the match, the Golden Bears exploded with eight of the next 10 to take control. UMD chipped away as they cut it to two at 12-10 before pulling within one at 13-12, but the Golden Bears quickly regained control with three in a row to push the lead back to four. Another 3-0 run a few points later extended the lead to six at 20-14 as the lead remained comfortably in their favor pretty much the rest of the way. Minnesota Duluth did manage to erase three consecutive set points as they turned it from 24-19 to 24-22, but
Kennedy Brady brought that streak to an end with a kill to hand CSP a 25-22 set win in the first.
It was UMD that jumped out to a quick lead in the second set with five of the first seven points, but Concordia responded with a 6-1 run to jump right back out front at 8-6. Three in a row for the Bulldogs led to the second lead change of the set, but it was once again negated as Concordia grabbed a 15-11 lead following seven of nine in their favor. Concordia would not trail again for the duration of the set as their advantage reached five at 20-15 before Minnesota Duluth strung together a late run to make things interesting. The Bulldogs scored four straight points to pull within one at 20-19 and remained there at 21-20, but they would only manage one more point the rest of the set as the Golden Bears cruised to win the set 25-21.
Both teams struggled to gain much of a foothold early in the third set as there were nine ties over the first 20 points before a crucial 8-2 run turned a 10-9 deficit into a 17-12 lead for the Golden Bears. The Bulldogs battled their way back to within three at 18-15, but seven of the final nine points went in favor of Concordia as they cruised to a 25-17 set win and a sweep of the match.
