MOORHEAD, Minn. – The second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (13-1, 4-1 NSIC) won their fourth match in a row as they claimed a four-set road win (25-19, 25-13, 23-25, 25-18) at MSU Moorhead (4-9, 1-4 NSIC) on Friday night.
The Golden Bears also pushed their streak against the Dragons to 20 straight wins as they improved to 35-8 in the all-time series. MSUM's set win was just their fourth in 64 sets during that streak dating back to 2008.
CSP put up their second-best hitting percentage of the season and their third-most kills as they collected 72 kills with 18 errors on 142 attempts for an efficient mark of .380 on the night. On the other side of the net, MSUM finished with 43 kills and a .230 hitting percentage in the loss. Concordia added a 54-42 edge in digs while MSU Moorhead edged CSP 3-2 in aces and 6.0-5.0 in blocks on the night.
It was a career night for
Makenna Berger as she led all players with 21 kills, blowing past her previous best of 17. She hit .486 while adding six digs and two blocks in the win.
Berger was one of four in double figures in kills as
Sophia Andersen finished with 18 kills while
Emma Schmidt added 11 kills and
Katie Mattson put up 10. Andersen needed just 27 attempts for her 18 kills as she hit .593 while Schmidt put up a match-best 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the year.
Ellie Sieling gave CSP two in double digits in digs with 10 while
Teagan Starkey followed with eight. Starkey pulled the strings for the offense as her 64 assists were just seven shy of her career-best and were tied for 11
th most in a four-set match for Concordia.
Bridget Witzmann carried the load on the attack for the Dragons as she picked up 20 of the team's 43 kills on 34 attempts as she hit .500 in the loss. She also paced MSUM with 13 digs to finish with a double-double.
CSP opened the match with five of the first seven points, but MSUM turned it around with six of seven a few points later to take a 9-7 advantage. The lead changed hands a couple of times over the next few points before Concordia took the lead for good with a 4-0 run to make it 15-12. The Golden Bears added to their lead with four straight to balloon it to six at 20-14 before the Dragons cut the lead in half with three of their own, but that would be all the closer they would get as Concordia took the set 25-19.
It was all Golden Bears to start the second as they scored the first four in a row and six of seven before controlling play throughout the set. The lead eventually reached double figures at 15-5 before Concordia settled with a 25-13 set win to double their lead at 2-0.
The Dragons flipped the script early in the third set as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead before four straight the other way put CSP in front. From there, the Golden Bears clung to a slim edge until MSU Moorhead regained the lead at 16-15. Concordia temporarily took the lead back at 18-17 and again at 19-18, but MSUM was able to gain the decisive edge with four points in a row. CSP closed the gap back to one at 24-23, but a Dragon kill secured the set 25-23 as they pushed it to a fourth set.
The first 28 points of the fourth and final set featured 11 ties and six lead changes as the two squads jostled for an advantage. It was the Golden Bears who ultimately gained that advantage as they used a 7-2 burst to turn a 13-12 deficit into a 19-14 lead. The gap would not shrink below three the rest of the way as Concordia finished off the match with a 25-18 win in the set.
Concordia will look to make it five wins in a row tomorrow afternoon as they travel to Northern State at 2 p.m.
