WAVERLY, Iowa (10/05/13)—Concordia's five-match win streak came to a crashing halt as the Cobbers lost three of the four matches at the Wartburg Classic over the weekend. Senior Kayla Hampton was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Concordia (14-7) dropped both matches on Friday, losing 3-0 to both Elmhurst (Ill.) and Coe. CC then rallied to beat Carthage 3-1 in the first match on Saturday before falling 3-1 to host Wartburg.
Hampton had team highs in kills, attack percentage and blocks for the tournament. She came away with 41 kills and hit .314 for the four matches. She also added 10 blocks on the weekend.
The Cobbers allowed its opponents to hit above .200 in the three losses but limited Carthage to just a .096 attack percentage in the lone win. CC also hit .205 against the Lady Reds.
Concordia opened the tournament with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-9) loss against Elmhurst. The Cobbers only had the lead at the start of the first set against the Blue Jays and could never get the offense on track. CC did not have a player with more than six kills in the match. Kynndyl Ross led Concordia with six kills while Alyssa Schmidt had 12 digs and Jena Klaphake had 12 assists.
The Cobbers then dropped a 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-20) decision against 20-2 Coe. The combined record of CC's two opponents on Friday was 41-3. Hampton led the Concordia offense against Coe as she had a team-high 12 kills. Ross had seven winners. Mandy Mercil came away with 15 assists.
Concordia's lone win came against Carthage. CC dropped the first set 25-21 but then rallied to come away with wins of 25-16, 25-21, 25-15. The Cobbers defense was the key in the final three sets. After allowing Carthage to hit .200 in the first set, Concordia stepped up and limited the Lady Reds to -.018 in the second set and then .182 in the third and .053 in the fourth set. CC's offense hit .205 for the match with four players having at least nine kills. Kelly Reed had a team-high 12 kills while Hampton added 11 and Ross and Anna Skow-Anderson had nine each. Klaphake and Mercil combined for 42 assists and Schmidt and Angie Waller both recorded 23 digs each.
The tournament finale could have gone either way with three of the four sets being decided by only two points. After falling 25-15 in the opening set, the Cobbers lost 29-27 in the second. CC then regrouped and earned a 25-23 victory in the third set before falling 26-24. Concordia had two set points in each of the second and fourth sets. The Cobbers led 24-22 in the final set and then conceded four straight points to the Knights.
Hampton and Ross keyed the CC offense against Wartburg. Ross had a team-high 14 kills and Hampton was one behind with 13 winners. Hampton had a team-high .414 attack percentage for the match. Klaphake and Mercil combined for 43 assists while Schmidt and Waller combined for 41 digs.
Concordia will go from the frying pan to the fire when they square off against defending national champion St. Thomas on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in St. Paul.
