MINOT, N.D. – Fueled by a season-high 19 kills from senior
Mehlayna Straub, the No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-4, 11-2 NSIC) wrapped up its weekend road trip to North Dakota with a sweep of Minot State (4-18, 0-13 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
Straub shined in a prominent role for the CSP attack, logging 19 kills with no errors on 33 swings for a .576 hitting percentage. On defense, she tied for the team lead with three total blocks and chipped in a pair of digs.
Fellow senior
Julia Gordon finished second on the team with 12 kills and added three blocks and three digs. Junior
Makenna Nold neared a double-double with 14 digs and eight kills in the match.
Defensively, sophomore
Kaelyn Snoozy led the team with 16 digs, while
Marta Leeland finished with 10 digs. Junior
Kelsey Cooper set a new career high with nine digs in the contest.
At setter, junior
Audrey Waterman paced the offense with 24 assists and added nine digs.
Reagan Hickey chipped in 12 assists and four digs for CSP.
The Golden Bears looked to be in trouble in the opening set as they trailed 21-14. Concordia strung together a massive rally at that point, winning eight of the next nine points to tie the set at 22 each. The teams went back and forth and played well into extra points, with each team holding three set-point opportunities, but it was Concordia that finished the job, capitalizing on two straight Beaver attack errors to escape with a 31-29 win.
Concordia grabbed an early 4-2 lead and never looked back in set two, steadily increasing its advantage throughout the frame. The Golden Bears led by as many as 12 points in the set, eventually securing a 25-15 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
CSP never trailed in the third set as it carved out a 12-5 advantage early in the set and coasted to a relatively comfortable 25-16 win. The Golden Bears had their best statistical set of the afternoon in the third, hitting .344 with 14 kills while limiting the Beavers to .107 hitting with just six kills.
For the match, CSP hit .271 with 48 kills against 12 errors, and Minot State hit .108 with 28 kills against 14 attack errors.
The win improved Concordia's all-time record against Minot State to 18-0, including a mark of 10-0 in road matches.
The Golden Bears will play their final non-conference match of the regular season on Tuesday when they take on #13 St. Cloud State at 6 p.m.
