Preview - #5 Concordia at #4 St. Mary's

MIAC QUARTERFINALS: #5 Concordia (15-10/7-4 MIAC) at #4 St. Mary's (19-9/8-3 MIAC) 

DATE: November 3, 2015
LOCATION: Winona, Minn. (St. Mary's Field House)
GAME TIME: 7 p.m.
TICKETS: $7 for adult and $3 for any student (5 years old and younger are free). There is no senior discount. MIAC Passes will be honored. No other passes are to be accepted.

Live Video: St. Mary's Stretch Internet GameDay


Live Stats: St. Mary's Stretch Internet GameDay

2015 MIAC Women's Volleyball Tournament

Nov. 3 (Tuesday)
MIAC Quarterfinals
No.6 seed Carleton@ No.3 seed St. Benedict 7 p.m.
No. 5 seed Concordia @ No.4 seed St. Mary's 7 p.m.

Nov. 5 (Thursday)
MIAC Semifinals
No.4/5 winner @ No.1 seed Gustavus 7 p.m.
No.3/6 winner @ No.2 seed Bethel 7 p.m.

Nov. 7 (Saturday)
MIAC Championship
Lowest remaining seed @ Highest remaining seed 7 p.m.

MIAC Team Playoff Notes:
- Concordia is playing in their 14th MIAC tournament. The Cobbers have only missed out on one conference postseason since the league went to the single elimination format and that came last year. 
- The Cobbers are 13-10 in MIAC tournament matches. Unfortunately CC is only 2-7 on the road in conference playoff matches. 
- Concordia is 0-2 against St. Mary's in conference tournament matches.
- St. Mary's is making its third straight MIAC playoff appearance and ninth conference playoff appearance since 2001.    
- Last year the Cardinals were also the No.4 seed and beat Bethel 3-1 in the quarterfinals before losing 3-0 to No.1-seed Augsburg in the semifinals.
- St. Mary's is 4-9 in MIAC playoff matches and 2-1 at home in the MIAC tourney since 2001.

Cobbers vs. St. Mary's Series History:

Series started: 1981

Concordia leads overall series: 30-15

Series Synopsis: Concordia has won 13 of its last 17 matches against St. Mary's but the Cardinals have taken three straight including the MIAC quarterfinal contest back in 2013...the teams have only played twice in the single elimination playoffs. Before the 2013 match-up the only other match came back in 2001 when St. Mary's blanked the Cobbers 3-0...Cobber head coach Tim Mosser is 21-12 vs. St. Mary's in his career.
          

Earlier This Year: Concordia at St. Mary's 3  

St. Mary's got off to a quick start in the first set. After leading 3-0 right away, the two teams began to trade points. Trailing 14-11, Concordia could not muster a run as St. Mary's rattled off four straight points aided by a pair of attack errors to take an 18-11 lead. The Cobbers battled back and took 10 of the next 12 points to grab a 21-20 lead. Olivia Wangensteen served for five times in-a-row as CC pulled ahead. Back-to-back kills followed by a Wangensteen attack error pushed SMU back ahead 23-21 and they would go on to take the first set.

Concordia tumbled out of the starting block at the beginning of the second set. The Cobbers trailed 14-0 before they realized the set had started. The Cobbers made four errors and Jenna Sullivan had three service aces in the run. CC pulled within striking distance at 20-15 after a pair of attack errors but the deficit was too much to mount and the Cardinals held on for a 25-18 win.

The tables turned in the third set and it looked as if the Cobbers would avoid the sweep.  The Cobbers rattled off six straight points with kills from Vanessa Johnson and Wangensteen to take a 6-0 lead. Concordia held the six-point advantage all the way up to the match point at 24-18.

The Cardinals rallied furiously. With Brittney Hanson serving, St. Mary's rattled off eight unanswered points, aided by four consecutive Cobber attack errors, to take the lead 25-24. After a short volley, Hanson set up Alex Peterson for the game winning kill giving SMU the improbable 26-24 game win and the three-set sweep.  

Stat Central:

- 2015 Concordia Statistics

- 2015 St. Mary's Statistics

- 2015 MIAC Statistics

- 2015 Concordia NCAA Team/Individual Rankings

- 2015 St. Mary's NCAA Team/Individual Rankings

Dig, Set, Kill - 3 notes to make you a start while watching the game
1. Concordia is 3-4-0 on the road this year against teams playing at home (CC is 5-4 on the road in games played on a neutral court). The Cobbers were 3-2 on the road in conference games this season. The Cardinals are 7-2 at home this year and 4-1 at home in conference play. St. Mary's has won three straight at home.

2. Concordia is 8-0 in matches when senior Olivia Wangensteen hits .150 or better. Wangensteen hit -.083 in the regular-season meeting in Winona between the Cobbers and Cardinals. Of her eight matches where she has hit .150 or better, six have been on the road. Macki Fadness, who leads St. Mary's in kills, has had six matches this seaosn where she has posted at least 15 kills. The Cardinals are 5-1 in those matches.  

3. Concordia were second in the MIAC in blocks in conference play this season. The Cobbers had 86 blocks in their 11 conference matches. St. Mary's was last in the league in blocks. SMU had only 55 blocks in conference play this year.   

Scouting the Cardinals: 
St. Mary's enters tonight's playoff match having won three of its last five matches. The Cardinals are coming off a 3-0 loss at Gustavus on Saturday. The other loss in that stretch came at Bethel. The three wins were against Augsburg, Macalester and Carleton.

The Cardinals get better as the match wears on during the 2015 season. SMU is 14-14 in the first set of matches and 15-13 in the second set. After the second set the Cardinals are 33-14 in sets 3,4,5. St. Mary's is 3-1 in five-set matches this year and 11-4 when the match goes to a fourth or fifth set.  

Individual Notes (courtesy of the St. Mary's SID)
Macki Fadness (Eau Claire, Wis.), who leads the team with a career-best 323 kills, has recorded 10 or more kills in 21 of the team's 28 matches. … Fadness, who has notched a season- and career-high 18 kills three times this season, is one of six Cardinals who have eclipsed the 100-kill plateau this season—Alex Peterson (Harmony, Minn. / 231), Cassidy Bittle (Winona, Minn. / 207), Jenna Sullivan (Woodbury, Minn. / 192), Molly Urban (Roseville, Minn. / 176), and Sara Lind (Peterson, Minn. / 124) are the others. … Lind banged out a career-high 15 kills to pace the Cardinals against Saint Benedict on Oct. 2. … Urban's 14-kill effort vs. Saint Benedict was also a career high. … Brittney Hanson (Janesville, Iowa) and Tayler MacVey (Dodge Center, Minn.) have shared the setting duties this season, with Hanson owning a team-best 493 assists, while MacVey is close behind with 457. … Hanson has recorded 20 or more assists in a match 14 times this season, one more than MacVey.

Cobber SID Pick To Click:
#6 Olivia Wangensteen, Sr., RSH
The senior is the hardest hitter on the Cobber team but the key for Wangensteen is keeping the ball in the court. She leads the team in kills with 255 winners but she is fifth among Concordia regulars in attack percentage. The tell-tale stat comes from attack percentage for Wangensteen. The Cobbers are 8-0 when Wangensteen hits .150 or better in a match.