Slipping Away In St. Peter

ST. PETER, Minn. (10/24/14)—Concordia was never able to pull away from Gustavus, gave up key runs at the end of all three sets and lost 25-17, 25-17, 25-22 in St. Peter.

The loss puts the Cobbers' conference playoff hopes in jeopardy as they fall to 3-5 in conference play and are now in ninth place in the race for six MIAC playoff spots. The loss is the third in the last four matches for CC. Concordia is now 10-11 in all matches. The Gusties win for the fourth time in the last five matches and move to 11-11 overall and 5-3 in the MIAC.

Concordia led briefly in all three sets and had their best chance to win in the third. The Cobbers grabbed a 10-9 lead and then pushed it to a two-point lead at 13-11. CC also led by two at 18-16 before Gustavus won four of the next five points to take a 20-19 lead. Concordia tied the match at 20-20 which started a streak where the Gusties would take a one-point advantage before the Cobbers would tie the set. That back-and-forth tussle lasted until 22-22 when Gustavus finished off the match by winning three straight points.

The Cobbers hit .135 for the three sets but weren't able to contain the Gustie offense. Gustavus had a .299 attack percentage for the match. Gustavus had 10 more kills and seven more digs in the match. Concordia had only one block in the three sets.  

Concordia didn't have a front line player with more than seven kills on the night. Heather Beaner had a team-high seven winners and hit .438. Kelly Reed and Kynndyl Ross both had six kills while Kathleen Lippert had four winners and finished with a match-high .571 attack percentage.

Alyssa Schmidt and Korbyn Ross combined for 21 digs. Schmidt had a team 11 digs to post her fifth straight double-digit dig performance.

Mandy Mercil and Jena Klaphake both had 14 assists to lead the Cobber offense.            

Concordia will try to get closer to the top 6 in the MIAC on Saturday, Oct. 25 when they play at St. Olaf at 3 p.m.