First One Down, One More To Go

ST. JOSPEH, Minn. (10/26/13)—The bad news is that Concordia was swept by St. Ben's and drops into a three-way tie for first place in the MIAC standings. The good news is that Concordia will have another chance to clinch a share of the conference regular-season championship.

The Cobbers could never come up with a sustained offensive attack as they lost for the first time in conference play. CC is now 9-1 in the league with one match left. If the Cobbers can beat third-place Augsburg, Concordia will clinch a share of the regular-season championship and the No.1 spot in the league playoffs. A loss could drop CC all the way into the No.4 seed for the upcoming playoffs.

The battle between Concordia and No.7-ranked St. Ben's was won in the middle of the first and second sets. Both teams traded points in the opening contests but then the Blazers used runs to come away the victories.

St. Ben's (23-2/8-2 MIAC) opened up the first set with an 8-1 run that broke open a 15-15 back-and-forth battle. The second set was more of the same. The Cobbers trailed by a single point at 15-14 but then CSB won eight of the next points to take a 23-16. Concordia rallied to get to within three at 23-20 but then St. Ben's closed out the set with two straight points.

The third set was all Blazers as they bolted to a 6-1 lead, lengthened it to 12-4 and then 18-8 before winning 25-18.

Concordia hit at least .140 in all three sets but couldn't stop St. Ben's. The Blazers hit .268 for the match and had a match-high .375 attack percentage in the third set.  

The Cobbers didn't have a single player with more than eight kills in the match. Olivia Wangensteen had eight kills while Kayla Hampton added five. Wangensteen also had 10 digs and Hampton had a match-high four blocks. Angie Waller recorded a team-high 12 digs while Jena Klaphake had 14 assists.

Concordia will finish off the MIAC regular season when they host Augsburg on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.