A Sweep Rebound In Winona

WINONA, Minn. (10/15/22)---Concordia shook off a tough night in Northfield, and less than 18 hours later, hit a conference-best .271 and swept St. Mary's 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-22).

The Cobbers used a late-set swing of momentum in the opening set to record their fourth win in the last six matches. Concordia is now 6-13 overall and 3-4 in the MIAC. St. Mary's is now 9-13 in all matches and 2-5 in conference play.

The match-changing momentum swing came after the Cobbers called timeout after trailing 18-15. CC came out of the break and proceeded to rattle off seven of the next eight points to grab a 22-19. The Cardinals rallied to tie the set at 22-22, before kills by Anna Brakke and Kendra Wiggs, followed by an SMU attack error gave the Cobbers the 25-22 win.

Energized by the late-set rally, Concordia won nine of the first 12 points in the second set – never trailed – and went on to post a 25-16 victory.

The third set was decided in the final six points. Neither team had more than a 3-point lead in the final set, before CC won four of the final six points after they held a slight 21-20 lead.

Concordia finished the match with 44 kills and hit .271. The .271 attack percentage is the best they posted in their seven league matches. It is only the second time all season they have hit above .270 for a match.

The Cobber defense held St. Mary's to a .130 hitting percentage and 39 winners. Concordia also came away with a 5.0-2.0 advantage in blocks.

Wiggs and Brakke led the Cobber frontliners. Wiggs had a team-high 11 kills, hit .276 and recorded a match-high 4.0 blocks. Brakke posted her eighth double-double of the year as she finished with 10 kills and 14 digs.

Concordia had four different players with double-digit dig totals. Besides Brakke, Chloe Markovic had a team-high 19 digs, Kaia Lill added 12 and Karlie Goschen had 11.

Markovic now has 346 digs for the year which is fifth in the MIAC, while Lill's season total of 636 assists is also fifth in the conference.                
 
UP NEXT: Concordia will travel to St. Bonifacius on Tuesday, Oct. 18 to take on Crown at 7 p.m. in the final non-conference match of the year.