A Successful Opening Weekend

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. (9/05/15)—Concordia continued their early-season success by winning three of their four matches at the Bethel Invitational over the weekend. The Cobbers beat No.21-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan on Friday and then Martin Luther and Buena Vista on Saturday to up their season record to 4-1.

The four wins in the first five matches is an improvement over last season where it took CC eight matches to earn their fourth win.

The Cobbers started the tournament with their biggest win of the year. Concordia swept the nationally-ranked Prairie Wolves 26-24, 25-11, 27-25. CC wasn't able to keep the momentum and dropped their only match for the two days against Wis.-Eau Claire. The Blugolds won 3-1 after Concordia opened the match with a 25-21 win in the first set.

Concordia swept Martin Luther in the opener on Saturday. CC was never pushed against the Knights, winning 25-12, 25-17 and 25-14.

The final match of the tournament found CC outlasting Buena Vista in five sets. Concordia broke open the final set by winning five straight points after clinging to a 7-6 lead. CC won 15-9 and claimed eight of the final 11 points.  

Senior Olivia Wangensteen has found the Fountain of Youth in the first five matches of the season. She led Concordia with 41 kills at the Bethel tournament and finished with 39 digs.

The Cobbers had at four other players with at least 20 kills for the tournament. Heather Beaner had 27 winners while Vanessa Johnson came away with 23 kills. Freshman Tedi Ramberg added 21 winners and Anna Skow-Anderson finished off the quartet with 20.

Korbyn Ross recorded a team-high 73 digs and Mandy Mercil posted 80 assists to lead the CC offense. Beaner was also successful on the defensive end – coming up with a team-high 16 blocks.

STAT STUFF:  Wangensteen leads Concordia with 54 kills this this season after having 115 in all of last year. Mercil needs only two more assists to break the 100-helper barrier for the year and Ross needs four more digs to surpass the 100 dig mark.

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will stay on the road when they play a pair of matches in Wisconsin next Saturday. The Cobbers will face Ripon at Wis.-Stevens Point at 2 p.m. and then square off with the host Pointers at 4 p.m.