ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-5) played its final non-conference match of the regular season on Tuesday evening, falling in four sets at No. 15 St. Cloud State (16-6).
Junior
Makenna Nold logged her 11
th double-double of the season in the match, finishing with 18 kills and 11 digs to go along with a pair of block assists and two aces. Fellow junior
Kelsey Cooper also finished in double figures on offense, tallying 12 kills, three blocks, and two digs while hitting a team-best .385.
The CSP offense was paced by junior
Reagan Hickey, who tallied 24 assists and seven digs. Fellow junior
Audrey Waterman added 15 assists and five digs.
Freshman
Abby Rolbiecki and sophomore
Marta Leeland anchored CSP's back row, finishing with 14 and 12 digs, respectively. Senior
Mehlayna Straub led the team with five total blocks and also contributed six kills.
Concordia looked to be in the driver's seat early in the first set as it built a 6-2 lead, but the Huskies stormed back with a 6-2 run of their own to tie the set at eight each. The teams jostled back and forth through the middle of the set as they played to another tie at 15 each. The Huskies dominated from that point on, closing the set on a 10-3 run to claim a 25-18 win.
In set two, things remained close in the early stages as the teams battled to a 10-10 tie. St. Cloud State went on to take the next three points in what proved to be the final lead change of the set. The Husky advantage slowly expanded throughout the remainder of the set, culminating in yet another 25-18 win that put them up two sets to none.
The Golden Bears responded with a comfortable 25-12 win in the third set after starting red hot with a 9-1 run to open the frame. Concordia dominated that set statistically, hitting .462 with 14 kills while limiting the Huskies to .036 hitting with just eight kills.
The fourth set was hotly contested throughout, containing 12 ties and six lead changes, and with neither team leading by more than three points at any moment. Concordia broke a 15-15 tie with a 4-1 run to take a 19-16 lead, but the Huskies followed it up with a four-point run to take a 20-19 lead of their own. The Golden Bears claimed the following two points on kills from Nold to briefly regain control at 21-20, but it was all Huskies from that point as they closed on a 5-1 run to take the set 25-22 and claim the match in four sets.
The Golden Bears will now return home as they prepare to host Northern State (S.D.) and Jamestown (N.D.) this weekend at the Gangelhoff Center.
