CROOKSTON, Minn. – The No. 8 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-4, 9-2 NSIC) capped off its weekend road trip with a victory over Minnesota Crookston (3-16, 1-10 NSIC) in straight sets on Saturday afternoon at Lysaker Gymnasium.
The win marked Concordia's 41
st straight over Minnesota Crookston in a streak that dates back to 2000. The Golden Bears now hold an all-time record of 41-3 against UMC.
Senior
Mehlayna Straub was nearly unstoppable for the Golden Bears, setting a new career high for a three-set match with 16 kills and no errors on 22 swings for a .727 hitting percentage. Straub also chipped in three total blocks to finish with a match-high 19.5 total points.
Junior
Makenna Nold was the only other Golden Bear in double figures on offense, tallying 12 kills on .478 hitting and adding five digs and two blocks.
Defensively, freshman
Abby Rolbiecki anchored the back row with 11 digs, while sophomore
Josie Tingelhoff added seven, and sophomore
Kaelyn Snoozy contributed six.
Setter
Reagan Hickey tallied 19 assists and five digs, while
Audrey Waterman added 15 assists and four digs.
As a unit, the Golden Bears hit .390 with 44 kills while Minnesota Crookston hit just .096 with 28 kills. Concordia also led in aces (5-2), blocks (7-4), and assists (39-26).
Concordia kicked off the opening set in a big way, quickly working out to an 8-1 advantage. Later in the set, the Golden Eagles threatened with a run of four consecutive points to pull within three at 21-18, but that proved to be as close as they would get with Concordia going on to win the set 25-20.
The Golden Bears dominated the entirety of set two, claiming four straight points to start the set and continually expanding that lead on the way to a 25-9 set win.
Tied at 3-3 early in the third, Concordia caught fire with a run of eight straight points on the serve of
Marta Leeland to take a commanding 11-3 lead. The CSP advantage was never in doubt the rest of the way as they went on to claim a 25-13 win to seal the sweep.
The Golden Bears will hit the road once again next weekend for matches at UMary (N.D.) and Minot State (N.D.).
