One Tough Tournament

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (10/15/16)--- Rarely does a team go 0-4 at a tournament and feel more optimistic after the four matches than before they started. But rarely does a team play three teams in one weekend who were all ranked in the Top 25 of the nation.     

The Cobbers continued to show their season-long improvement as they battled nationally ranked Millikin, Eastern, host Colorado College and regional power Luther at the Pikes Peak Challenge in Colorado Springs. 

Concordia failed to win a match over the two days but were playing against teams who entered the weekend with a combined of 67-14. 

The Cobbers were the youngest team at the tournament -, having only three upperclassmen on their entire roster. The young players continued to show their ever-gaining confidence by going toe-to-toe with some of the top teams in the country.

At the end of the weekend it was one of the freshmen and sophomores on the team who was named to the All-Tournament Team. Sophomore Emily Friedrich earned her second All-Tournament Team honor by putting down a total of 54 kills, recording 38 digs and adding four blocks in the four matches.  She led the team in kills in all four matches and had a team-high 170 attacks for the weekend.

The Cobbers started the weekend tournament by squaring off against Luther who came to Colorado with a 16-5 record. Concordia lost 3-1 (25-19, 26-28, 25-20, 25-16) but started to show signs of being able to compete against a high-quality opponent. Friedrich had 17 kills and 10 digs while senior Jena Klaphake came up with 42 assists and Mandy Mercil and Stephanie Bakereach had team-high dig totals of 14.

The second match on Friday was against No.23-ranked Millikin (Ill.). Concordia lost in three sets (25-15, 25-19, 25-21) but their progressively higher point total in each set showed their gaining confidence at a higher level of play. 

Friedrich had eight kills against the Big Blue while freshman Brianna Carney added seven winners and three blocks. 

The first match on Saturday proved to be the high point of the season for the Cobbers as they battled No.12-ranked Eastern (Pa.) through five tough, grueling sets. Concordia was up 2-1 on the Eagles and leading 21-19 in the fourth set before Eastern won five of the last seven points to earn the 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 win.

The Cobbers took over the match in the second set by hitting .225 and carried that momentum through their win in the third set. Unfortunately the CC attack ran out of steam at the end of the fourth set and the Cobbers had a minus-0.37 attack percentage in the fifth set. 

Friedrich finished with 21 kills against Eastern which was one shy of her career best. Carney added 14 winners and fellow freshman Emma Chandler had 10 kills to give CC three players with double-digit kill totals. 

Klaphake had 51 assists in the five sets which was four shy of her career best. Mercil came away with a team-high 24 digs and Carney had six blocks. 

Concordia ran into fatigue and the No.8-ranked team in the country in the final match on Saturday. The Cobbers lost in three sets (25-16,25-17,25-18) to Colorado College who won all four matches on the weekend and is now 21-3 on the year.       

Concordia had little time to recover after their thriller with Eastern and dropped their overall record to 8-14 on the year. 

Klaphake finished with 131 assists in the four matches and now has a single-season career high total of 667. 

Mercil led the team in digs over the weekend with 54 while Carney hit a team-best .179, finished with 35 kills and added 16 blocks.   

MISS 2000: Jena Klpahake's 19th, and final, assist against Colorado College on Saturday gave her exactly 2000 assists for her career. She is one of only a handful of Cobber players in program history to reach the 2000-assist mark. 

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:
MVP - Lizzy Counts – Colorado College
Stephanie Elechko – Eastern University
Emily Friedrich – Concordia College
Abbe Holtze – Colorado College
Sarah Roberts – Eastern University
Keli Sherwood – Colorado College
Jamie Sindlinger – Luther College
Erin Syversen – Millikin University
Emma Veum – Luther College  

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will have a week to recover from their travel out west. The Cobbers will hit the road on Friday and Saturday for their annual conference doubleheader trip. Concordia will play at Gustavus on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. and then head to Carleton to face the Knights on Oct. 22 at 11 a.m.