Senior Haley Cuppett hits the ball through the block for one of her match-high 16 kills during the Cobbers' match with Minn.-Morris.
Senior Haley Cuppett hits the ball through the block for one of her match-high 16 kills during the Cobbers' match with Minn.-Morris.

Thriller On Monday Night Volleyball

STORY LINE: Concordia rallied from a 2-1 deficit to tie their non-conference match with Minn.-Morris but then fell 15-12 in the deciding fifth set. The Cobbers fell behind 4-1 in the final set but then regrouped to tie the score at 5-5 before giving up a match-winning a 4-0 run in the middle of the set.

RECORDS: Concordia Drops its third straight match and falls to 8-14 on the season. The match was the last non-conference contest of the year for CC. The Cobbers finish the year with a 4-11 mark against non-league opponents. Minn.-Morris wins for the third time in the last four matches and improves to 17-10.

UNCHARTERED TERRITORY: The 5-set thriller was only the second time this season that Concordia had played past the fourth set. The only other time CC ventured into 5-set waters was the season opener when they beat Buena Vista 3-2. The Cobbers have only played eight total matches this season that have gone longer than three sets.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE: Concordia won the opening set 25-20. The set was a 1-point affair at 18-17 before CC finished with a 7-3 streak. The Cobber defense held the Cougars to .062 in the opening set. The offense hit .159 in the first set and then .188 when CC won 25-21 in the fourth set. Unfortunately the Concordia offense was held to a minus-.188 hitting percentage in the fifth set.

HALEY'S COMET: Senior Haley Cuppett came up with her best offensive match since the opening two weeks of the year. Cuppett came away with a match-high 16 kills and hit .263. Both stats are second best on the year for Cuppett. She had 17 winners in the season opener vs. Buena Vista and hit .286 in the sweep over Carleton.  

CAN'T SPELL BLOCK WITHOUT A K: Concordia freshman Kendra Wiggs had the best match of her career at the net. Wiggs led all players with seven total blocks. Her previous season high was six on Sept. 7 vs. Simpson and Sept. 12 at St. Thomas. Wiggs has had at least one block in 17 straight matches and leads the team in the stat category with 59 total blocks.

UP NEXT: Concordia will head out on the road for the annual conference away doubleheader. The Cobbers will play at No.11-ranked Gustavus on Friday, Oct.19 and then play a critical match at St. Olaf on Saturday, Oct. 20. The Cobbers and Oles are currently deadlocked in sixth place in the MIAC standings. The Top 6 teams in the conference advance to the postseason tournament at the end of the year.

CONCORDIA vs. MINN.-MORRIS HIGHLIGHTS: