ST. PAUL, Minn. – The seventh-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (8-3, 2-1 NSIC) dropped their NSIC home opener to fourth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (10-1, 3-0 NSIC) in straight sets (25-22, 25-21, 28-26) on Friday night.
The Golden Bears saw their six-match winning streak come to an end as they dropped their conference home opener for the first time since 2001. The win for Minnesota Duluth also dropped CSP to 26-29 in the all-time series and 14-15 at home against the Bulldogs.
In a back-and-forth match that featured 27 ties and nine lead changes, it was the offenses that shined as UMD hit .278 (49-17-115) and CSP hit .252 (44-16-111) for the match. Both teams had three different players finish in double figures in kills while five of the six hitters hit above .300. The Bulldogs also finished with a 48-43 advantage and a 6-4 advantage in service aces.
The trio of
Jasmine Mulvihill,
Sara Macek and
Kennedy Brady provided an impressive effort as they combined for 34 kills and a .453 hitting percentage in the match. Mulvihill led the way with 14 kills and just one error on 29 swings for a .448 hitting percentage while Macek put up a massive 10 kill, zero error effort on 15 swings to hit .667 to go along with a pair of aces. Brady followed with 10 kills on 20 attempts for a .300 hitting percentage.
Tori Hanson was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in digs with 11 while
Payton Nutter added 24 assists and
Ellie Veldman contributed 16 assists.
Abby Thor paced the Bulldogs with 14 kills on just 20 attempts while Kate Berg and Meredith Sutton each added 12 apiece in the win. Berg also matched Keena Seiffert for the team lead with nine digs on the night.
The Golden Bears built an early lead as they scored the first three points of the match, but UMD quickly rebounded with four in a row to take the lead. The Bulldogs continued to hold an advantage for the next several points as they grew it to as many as four at 11-7 before a 6-1 run the other way put CSP in front. That lead proved to be short-lived as Minnesota Duluth built a three point lead with a 3-0 run a few points later to regain the edge. Concordia clawed their way back to tie it up at 22-22, but the Bulldogs responded with three straight to claim the opening set 25-22.
After the Bulldogs grabbed two straight to start the second set, CSP rattled off a 5-1 run to take the lead. From there, the two teams traded points until the middle of the set when Minnesota Duluth scored six of eight to pull ahead 19-15. Concordia managed to close the gap back to two at 22-20 and 23-21, but they were unable to pull any closer as the Bulldogs closed out the set 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Concordia jumped ahead early again in the third with seven of the first 11 points before UMD tied it up at 11-11 with a 6-2 run of their own. The Golden Bears regained the lead with a 6-1 run to turn a 15-14 deficit into a 20-16 lead, but the Bulldogs once again answered with a decisive run. With the lead still at four at 22-18, Minnesota Duluth strung together six of eight, including a pair of set points, to tie it up at 24-24. UMD survived another set point at 25-24 as they scored four of the next five to complete the sweep with a 28-26 win in the third.
The Golden Bears will look to get back in the win column tomorrow afternoon as they play host to St. Cloud State at 1 p.m.
