A World Of Experience

EAU CLAIRE, Minn. (9/01/02)—The new look Cobbers gained a ton of valuable experience as they finished the UW-Eau Claire Classic 2-2 on the opening weekend of the season.

Concordia posted wins over Martin Luther and UW-Stout but dropped "white knuckle" 3-2 decisions to host Eau Claire and UW-Stevens Point. The Cobbers had leads in both of the losses but couldn't finish off their opponents and fell by the narrowest of margins in the fifth game.  

The Cobbers had several players step to the forefront in the first matches since last year's NCAA Regional Final run. Freshman Olivia Wangensteen led CC with 46 kills in the four matches. She also posted 28 digs and three blocks. Wangensteen went on to be the team's lone representative on the All-Tournament squad.

Senior Danelle Loomis captained the Cobber offense throughout the two-day event. She had a team-high 101 assists. Loomis also had 31 digs which tied for second on the team. Fellow senior Rachel Wiinanen led the team in digs with 47. She had a tournament-high 28 against UW-Eau Claire on Friday.  Junior newcomer Angie Waller also came away with 31 digs. Waller recorded 20 kills and four blocks to go along with her dig total.

Concordia opened the season by starting slow but then cruising to a 3-1 (19-25, 25-17, 25-18, 26-24) win over Martin Luther. Wangensteen had 22 kills in the opener while Loomis came away with a career-high 32 assists. The second match on Friday proved to be the most dramatic of the weekend. The Cobbers trailed 2-0 to Eau Claire but then rallied to tie the match at 2-2 only to fall 15-12 in the fifth game (25-14, 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 15-12). Concordia repeated the win-loss storyline on Saturday. They opened the day by blanking UW-Stout 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 28-26) and then fell in five games to UW-Stevens Point (25-16, 23-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-13). The Cobbers held a 2-1 lead against the Pointers but stumbled at the end of game 4 and then lost in the fifth game.

The Cobbers will continue their non-conference slate next weekend when they play in the Washington Univ. (Mo.) Invite. Concordia will play Otterbein and Elmhurst on Friday, Sept. 7 and then UW-Whitewater and Washington Univ. on Saturday, Sept. 8. Three of the four opponents for CC were ranked in the top 20 of the AVCA preseason poll. Wash Univ. is ranked No.2 while Elmhurst is ranked 11^th and Whitewater was in the No.17 spot.