Springboard For Something Special?

TACOMA, Wash.  (9/13/13)— Concordia staved off three match points and rallied to beat No.11-ranked Puget Sound 3-2 (24-26, 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 19-17) in a match that could be the springboard for something special for the Cobbers 2013 season.

The teams traded extremely tight wins in the first four sets of the match. The only non two-point decision came in the second set when Concordia claimed a 25-22 win. Those first four nail-biters set the stage for a storybook fifth set for CC. The Cobbers never led in the final set until taking a 15-14 lead towards the conclusion of the match.

Concordia trailed by as many as five points late in the fifth set and rallied from an 11-6 deficit to tie the contest at 13-13 and then took a 14-13 lead on a kill by Olivia Wangensteen. The Loggers then came up with two straight points to set up their first match point at 15-14. Once again the Cobber front line came up witha huge play as Kynndyl Ross hammered home a kill to push the score to 15-15. A second straight Puget Sound point after a tie score once again pushed CC to the brink of defeat. Cue the front line and Wangensteen who once again came up huge as she put down one of her match-high 21 kills on the night. The Loggers fought back to grab a 17-16 lead but the Cobbers were given a third straight lifeline as the UPS player missed on the service and the score was tied at 17-17.
 
The Cobbers closed out the match after Angie Waller came up with her eighth kill of the night and then a Logger attack attempt went amiss to give CC the 19-17 dramatic victory.

Both teams finished with attack percentages in the .200's. Concordia hit an even .200 while Puget Sound had a .233 percentage for the night. The teams put on a dig clinic the entire match and came away with 219 combined digs. Alyssa Schmidt had a career-high 33 digs for the Cobbers while Christina Chun came away with a match-high 38 for UPS. The 33 digs by Schmidt is the most by a CC player in a single match since Rachel Wiinanen had 36 on Oct. 19 of last year. Waller also had 23 digs on Friday.  

Wangensteen, Ross and Anna Skow-Anderson keyed the Cobber offense. The trio of front-liners combined for 50 of the team's 75 kills. In addition to the match-high 21 from Wangensteen, Skow-Anderson tied a career high and had 15 kills while Ross added 14 more. Concordia had a pair of freshman setters post season-high assist marks. Mandy Mercil came away with 43 helpers while Jena Klaphake added 23 assists.  Senior Kayla Hampton was a force on the defensive side of the net for CC as she posted a match-high eight blocks.

Concordia will stay in Washington for a pair of matches on Saturday, Sept. 14. The Cobbers will face Pacific at 3 p.m. and then square off against Pacific Lutheran at 6 p.m. Both matches will be played at Pacific Lutheran in Tacoma, Wash. The match against Pacific Lutheran will feature a live video feed.