LAKELAND, Fla. – The #5 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (1-1) picked up a split against Hillsdale (1-0) and Florida Southern (0-1) on the first day of the season at the Terrace Hotel Classic on Friday. CSP dropped the first match in five (22-25, 26-24, 21-25, 25-20, 11-15) to HC before knocking off the hosts FSC in four (25-16, 25-17, 21-25, 25-21).
 
Concordia will conclude play in the Terrace Hotel Classic tomorrow as they take on Valdosta State at 10 a.m. and Tampa at 6:30 p.m. with both matches being played at Tampa.
 
Hillsdale 3, #5 Concordia-St. Paul 2
In the season-opening match against the Chargers, the Golden Bears were unable to capitalize on a 71-59 edge in kills as HC proved to be more efficient with 20 attack errors and a .242 hitting percentage while CSP finished with 36 attack errors and a mark of .198 hitting.
 
It was a back-and-forth contest throughout as Hillsdale grabbed the first and third sets while CSP took the second and fourth before the Chargers closed out the win with a 15-11 victory in the deciding fifth set.
 
Junior Erin Fallert got off to a strong start as she tallied a career-high 18 kills with a .262 hitting percentage while also tacking on 14 digs for the double-double. Fellow junior Tori Hanson was also impressive in the back row with a match-best 23 digs while also chipping in a pair of aces and a kill in the contest.
 
Offensively, senior Sara Macek and freshman Jasmine Mulvihill joined Fallert in double figures in kills as Macek finished with 14 kills and a .440 hitting percentage as well as four blocks while Mulvihill picked up 13 kills and six digs in her CSP debut. Makenna Berger added nine kills and seven digs in her first match as a Golden Bear as well.
 
From the setter position, Ellie Veldman and Payton Nutter shared the duties as Veldman collected 32 assists and four blocks while Nutter contributed 30 assists and eight digs in the loss.
 
For the Chargers, Allyssa Van Wienen did the heavy lifting as she led all players with 21 kills and seven blocks in the win. Van Wienen picked up kills on exactly half of her 42 attempts as he finished with a strong .452 hitting percentage. Maddie Clark added a double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs for HC as well.
 
There was very little separating the two teams in the opening set as the only three-point margin in the entire set came at the final margin of 25-22. Neither team was able to string together larger than a 2-0 run until the later stages of the set when CSP scored three in a row to turn a 15-13 deficit into a 16-15 lead. After HC regained the advantage with two in a row on their side, Concordia strung together another 3-0 burst to grab their largest lead of the set at 19-17. The edge remained at two at 20-18, but the Golden Bears managed to grab just two of the final nine points of the set as Hillsdale scored four in a row before cruising to a 25-22 set win.
 
The two teams split the first 12 points of the second set before four in a row put the Chargers out front 10-6 early in the set. The lead remained four several points later at 14-10, but CSP responded with six of the next seven and nine of the next 12 to build a 19-17 edge. The Chargers pushed their way back front with three straight and eventually forced set point at 24-22, but the Golden Bears wouldn't go away. Concordia erased two straight set points with a pair of kills before extending the run to 4-0 to win the set 26-24.
 
It was Hillsdale that once again gained a little separation midway through the third set as they scored four in a row to turn a 7-6 deficit into a 10-7 lead. HC's advantage reached five at 15-10 and again at 17-12 before CSP closed the gap back to one with a 7-3 run. That would be all the closer they would get, however, as the Chargers rattled off five of the seven points to win the set 25-21 and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
It was Concordia's turn to build an advantage midway through the fourth set as they put together an 8-3 run to take a 17-12 lead. The two teams traded points until the 20-15 mark as Hillsdale scored the next three in a row to trim it to two at 20-18. CSP regained the momentum with three straight on their end before finishing off the set 25-20 to force a decisive fifth set.
 
Concordia wasted little time jumping ahead in the fifth as they scored four of the first six and five of the first eight, but a 5-0 run gave the Chargers the lead for good. After HC extended their edge to four at 11-7, the two teams went back and forth the rest of the set as Hillsdale closed out the match with a 15-11 set win in the fifth.
 
#5 Concordia-St. Paul 3, Florida Southern 1
The Golden Bears bounced back in a big way in the second match of the day as they cruised to comfortable set wins in the first and second before finishing it off in four sets.
 
CSP tallied 51 kills on 131 swings for a .252 hitting percentage while their defense stifled the Mocs as they held them to .129 hitting with 40 kills on 132 attempts. The Golden Bears also held a 64-50 edge in digs and an 8.0-6.0 edge in blocks to aid their effort.
 
Sara Macek put together a dominant performance as she finished with a match-high 16 kills on 25 swings with just two errors to hit .560 in the win. Macek also added five blocks and four assists to fill the stat sheet.
 
Erin Fallert paced the squad defensively with 24 digs to go along with six kills while Tori Hanson followed with 17 digs of her own. Jasmine Mulvihill made it two straight matches in double figures in kills to start her career with 11 while Makenna Berger put up 10 kills and seven digs in the contest.
 
Payton Nutter led the team with 27 assists while also chipping in six digs while Ellie Veldman added 19 assists and three blocks in the win.
 
Buse Ene and Olena Bondar each contributed 10 kills to lead the way for the Mocs while Beatrice Formilan put up 20 digs in the loss.
 
While it was the Mocs that built the first significant lead at 12-9, it was the Golden Bears that took the momentum from there. CSP rattled off six of the next seven points to take the lead at 15-13 and they continued to add on from there. After a point for FSC brought them back to within one, Concordia kept the run going with a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 22-14. CSP's lead eventually grew to nine at the final margin as they took the opening set 25-16.
 
Concordia followed a similar formula in the second set as they turned a 4-3 FSC lead into a 7-4 lead of their own with four in a row. A few points later, CSP added to their cushion with a 6-1 run to push it to 14-7. The Golden Bears' lead ballooned to double figures at 20-9 following another 6-0 run, but the Mocs responded with six in a row in their favor to pull back within five at 20-15. From there, five of the last seven went in favor of CSP to give them a 25-17 set win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Florida Southern managed to avoid the sweep as they used an early 5-0 burst to build a 10-6 lead. Their lead reached five at 15-10 following a 4-1 run before Concordia had it back to within one at 15-14 with four straight points the other way. A 4-1 burst for the Golden Bears a few points later evened the score at 21-21, but the Mocs took four straight to win the set 25-21.
 
The fourth set was back and forth in the early going as neither team built much of an edge until late. With FSC ahead 13-12, Concordia broke it open with an 8-1 run to take a 20-14 lead. Five of six the other way had Florida Southern back within two, but Concordia finished off the match in four with the final two points to win the set 25-21.