DENVER, Colo. – The #10 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (5-2) earned a spot in the Colorado Premier Challenge title match with a four-set victory (25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19) over Regis (6-1) on Saturday morning on the campus of MSU Denver.
The Golden Bears head into Saturday night's championship match against #15 Southwest Minnesota State with a chance to win their seventh tournament title since 2008. First serve is scheduled for 8 p.m.
In what was a fairly even match statistically, efficiency proved to be the difference. CSP held slight advantages of 60-58 in kills, 7-6 in blocks, 54-52 in assists and 78-76 in digs, but their biggest advantage cam in hitting percentage as they terminated at a .250 clip compared to .194 for the Rangers.
It was a group effort for the Golden Bears as four players finished in double figures in kills, three finished in double figures in digs and two finished in double figures in assists.
Freshman
Jasmine Mulvihill delivered her finest performance of her young career with a match-best 17 kills on just 30 attempts for a solid .500 hitting percentage in the win.
Erin Fallert followed with her fourth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 16 digs while
Kennedy Brady added 11 kills and
Makenna Berger chipped in 10 kills and eight digs.
Tori Hanson was a force in the back row as she led all players with a season-high 28 digs as well as a career-best five aces in a stellar performance.
Payton Nutter joined Hanson and Fallert in double figures in digs with 13 as she also led the team with 32 assists for her second consecutive double-double.
Ellie Veldman added 19 assists and seven digs as well.
Izzy Gosar and Kelsey Green combined for over half of the Rangers' 58 kills as Gosar contributed 16 while Kelsey Green tacked on 15 more.
It was a bit of a slow start for the Golden Bears in the opening set as the Rangers scored seven of the first 10 points to build an early lead, but it proved to be a lead that would not last. Regis doubled their lead to eight at 15-7, but CSP had the margin back down to one at 17-16 following a 9-2 run. RU withstood the charge for a bit longer, even growing their edge back to three as late as 21-18, but they only managed two more points for the remainder of the set as Concordia blew past them with a 7-2 run to win the set 25-23.
Set two followed a bit of a different script as the two teams traded points basically from start to finish. The set featured a staggering 18 ties over the first 40 points as the two teams found themselves deadlocked at 20-20. Concordia turned it on from there, however, as they rattled off five points in a row to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 win in the second set.
The Golden Bears appeared poised to complete the sweep with a 6-1 run to start the third, but the Rangers turned it around from there. Regis shrunk the CSP lead to two following three straight points and eventually took the lead themselves following another 3-0 stretch to make it 16-15. Concordia tied it up with a point of their own before five of the next six gave RU the decisive edge. The Rangers maintained a slim advantage the rest of the way as they forced a fourth set with a 25-22 win in the set.
It was a game of runs early on in the fourth set as Regis built a 13-10 advantage before Concordia took control. The Golden Bears managed to turn a three-point deficit into a comfortable five-point lead with a big 9-1 run as they looked to close out the win in four. That lead did not slip below three down the stretch as CSP closed out RU with three points in a row to win the set 25-19.
