WAYNE, Neb. – The No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (8-3, 3-1 NSIC) suffered its first setback in Northern Sun play on Saturday afternoon, falling in five sets to No. 2 Wayne State (12-1, 4-0 NSIC) at Rice Arena.
Junior
Makenna Nold set a season high with 22 kills in the match, also adding 14 digs and four blocks for her seventh double-double of the season. Sophomore
Kaelyn Snoozy also tallied a double-double with 12 kills and 16 digs. Junior
Kelsey Cooper was the only other Golden Bear in double figures on offense with 14 kills. Cooper also added five blocks and five digs.
At the net,
Mehlayna Straub led the team with five total blocks and added nine kills. Senior
Julia Gordon finished with four blocks and eight kills.
In the back row, sophomore libero
Marta Leeland led the way with a season-high 22 digs.
Josie Tingelhoff also crossed the 20-dig mark for the first time in her collegiate career, finishing with 21. Freshman
Abby Rolbiecki notched a new career high with 19 digs.
Pacing the offense was junior
Reagan Hickey, who tallied 37 assists and 11 digs for her fourth double-double as a Golden Bear. Fellow junior
Audrey Waterman added 23 assists, three aces, and two digs.
Offensive statistics were relatively even between the teams, with Wayne State hitting .219 with 67 kills and Concordia hitting at a .210 clip with 66 kills. CSP held a significant edge in serve-receive, boasting a 9-2 advantage in aces.
Tied at 21-21 in a back-and-forth opening set, Wayne State claimed three of the following four points for a set-point chance at 24-23. Concordia managed to win four of the next five points to turn the tide and claim a 27-25 win.
In the second set, a four-point CSP run broke an 11-11 tie and gave the Bears the lead for what proved to be the final time in a 25-20 set win to go up 2-0 in the match.
The third set was another close one early on, with the teams playing to a 14-14 tie. A Wildcat run of four points in the next five serves gave Wayne State an 18-15 lead that they would never relinquish as they went on to win 25-22.
CSP led 11-9 early in the fourth set following a kill by Gordon and an ace from Waterman, but the Wildcats found a spark in the middle of the set once again as they won six of the next seven points to take a 15-12 advantage. That proved to be the final lead change of the set, as Wayne State secured a 25-21 win to send the match the distance with a fifth set.
In the fifth set, Concordia used another kill from Gordon and ace from Waterman to knot it up at 10 each. Wayne State managed the stronger finish, however, claiming the next three points to take a 13-10 lead on the way to the eventual 15-12 win that sealed the match.
The Golden Bears will split matches on the road and at home next week, playing at Winona State (2-7, 1-2 NSIC) on Thursday at 6 p.m. before hosting No. 10 St. Cloud State (8-4, 2-2 NSIC) on Saturday at 2 p.m.
