Road Split Keeps Cobbers In Third Place

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (10/20/12)—Concordia split their annual back-to-back conference road trip matches and is now one win away from clinching its 12^th straight MIAC playoff berth. The Cobbers lost a dramatic 3-2 match at Gustavus on Friday but then came back to sweep Carleton 3-0 on Saturday.

The win on Saturday moves the Cobbers to 6-3 in conference play. CC is still tied for third place in the league standings. Concordia and Bethel have identical 6-3 marks with two league matches left in the regular season. The Cobbers are now 11-9 in all matches.

Concordia, still smoldering from their 3-2 loss at Gustavus on Friday, rolled over Carleton on Saturday. The Cobbers cruised to a 25-21, 25-23, 25-14 win and trailed at only three points during the match. CC turned the match in their favor with a 6-2 run at the end of set No.1 after the teams were tied at 19-19. Concordia  won six of the first nine points in the second set and had to hold off a late Knight rally to win by two points. CC put the overall match to bed in the third set when they rattled off five straight points and turned a 10-7 set into a 15-7 dominating performance.

Concordia hit .201 against Carleton and held the Knights to a .116 attack percentage. The Cobbers also held a 46-33 edge in kills and came away with four more digs and three more service aces.

Kynndyl Ross was the only Cobber player with more than eight kills in the match. She had 14 winners and hit .303. Kayla Hampton had eight kills, two service aces and a match-high three blocks. Rachel Wiinanen came away with a match-high 21 digs while Danelle Loomis led the team with 25 assists.

The Cobbers' 3-2 (25-22, 25-23, 16-25, 20-25, 17-15) loss at Gustavus was a testament to the role that momentum plays in college volleyball matches. Concordia dropped the first two sets but then righted the ship and rolled to a pair of wins and led 12-9 in the fifth set before conceding five straight points and eight of the final 11.

Concordia hit .152 for the match. It was the first time in four matches that CC had an attacking percentage under .200 for the match. The Cobber defense held the Gusties to a .141 hitting percentage. The biggest difference in the match came from Gustavus' ability to come up with key blocks and clutch digs at crucial moments of the match. GAC had 10.0 total team blocks as opposed to only 6.0 for CC.

Cobber freshman Olivia Wangensteen posted her fourth 20-plus kill total. She had 22 winners and hit .280 for the five sets. Fellow freshman Anna Skow-Anderson also had a double-digit kill total. She came away with 15 kills and hit .231. Loomis had 44 assists and Wiinanen recorded 36 digs. It was the fourth time this season that Loomis has eclipsed the 40-assist mark and Wiinanen has now had three 30-plus dig matches.

Concordia will finish off the regular season by playing at Augsburg on Wednesday, Oct. 24 before returning home to host St. Ben's on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m.