ST. PAUL, Minn. – Behind 22 kills from
Makenna Nold, the No. 7 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (17-5, 12-2 NSIC) secured a home sweep of Northern State (15-7, 10-4 NSIC) on Friday evening at the Gangelhoff Center.
Nold was nearly unstoppable for the Golden Bears, setting a new career-high for a three-set match with 22 kills while hitting .425 on 40 swings. Her 22 kills in a three-set match are tied for the fourth-most in program history. The junior also added two aces, a block assist, and five digs, finishing with 24.5 total points.
Senior
Julia Gordon was also a key contributor on offense, tallying 13 kills on .345 hitting. Junior
Kelsey Cooper joined her in double figures with 10 kills and no errors on 15 attacks for a .667 hitting clip.
Pacing the offense was setter
Audrey Waterman with 24 assists, who also contributed two blocks and four digs. Her setting partner, Regan Hickey, added 19 assists and four digs.
On defense, freshman
Abby Rolbiecki led the way with nine digs, while libero
Kaelyn Snoozy finished with seven digs.
As a team, Concordia hit .333 with 52 kills, while Northern State logged 35 kills on .253 hitting. Serve-receive provided another significant advantage for the Bears, as they had seven aces to NSU's three.
In what had previously been a tight opening set, the Wolves used a run of five points in six serves to carve out the largest lead for either team at the point at 15-10. The NSU advantage held at five with the scoreboard reading 18-13 shortly after, but the Golden Bears found a spark with a 6-1 run to tie the set at 19 each. The teams traded blows down the stretch, with each spending time holding a narrow lead, but Northern State managed the first set point opportunity at 24-23. CSP made one final push from there, using a Northern State service error and a pair of kills from Gordon to escape with a 26-24 win.
In set two, the Golden Bears jumped out to a 7-2 lead and never looked back. The CSP lead went on to reach as many as 12 points on the way to a 25-16 set win that put them up two sets to none in the match.
The Golden Bears held a slim lead at 12-10 in the third set before winning 10 of the next 12 points to blow the set open with a 22-12 lead en route to another 25-16 win to complete the sweep.
With the victory, Concordia improves to 43-10 all-time against the Wolves, including a stellar mark of 27-4 at the Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears will host Jamestown (N.D.) in another NSIC clash on Saturday at 5 p.m.
