Finals Friday In St. Paul
ST. PAUL, Minn. (4/23/21)---Concordia had a pair of finals in St. Paul on Friday. The Cobbers played their final away match of the only spring season in program history and faced St. Thomas for the final time in program history.
Concordia could never get on track in their second-to-last match of the spring season and lost 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-19) to the Tommies who will be moving to NCAA Division I after the season.
The first was the closest of the three in the early going while the third set was the closest in the later stages. The Cobbers and St. Thomas traded runs in set No.1, with UST holding a 7-6 lead after a kill by senior Bailey Gronner. The set went to 9-7 and 14-11 in favor of the Tommies before St. Thomas went on a 6-1 run to pull away and gain the 9-point win.
The third set found Concordia trailing 17-8, and then CC went on a 7-1 streak to bring the score to 18-15. The set would stay at the 3-4 point margin until UST finished off the match on a 4-1 run.
The Cobbers had their best attack percentage in the opener when they hit .065 and had nine kills. Concordia finished the match with a .022 hitting mark and had 21 winners. St. Thomas hit .234 for the three sets and had 42 kills.
Gronner led the Cobbers' offense with a .308 attack percentage and five kills. She also had two digs and two assists. Anna Brakke had a team-best nine digs to go along with two kills and two service aces. Brook Carney added four kills and four digs. Jill Klaphake had 11 assists and fellow senior setter Lexi Turn recorded nine helpers.
Both Kendra Wiggs and Winnie Selekwa both had four winners and two blocks while freshman Taylor Streyle had a season-high eight digs.
UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off the spring season when they host St. Catherine on Monday, Apr. 26 at 5 p.m. The Wildcats are 1-2 on the year and haven't played since Apr. 13.
RECAP SPONSOR: Today's recap sponsor is Sanford Orthopedic Sports Medicine. Cobber athletics would like to thank Sanford Orthopedics Sports Medicine for their long-time support of Concordia student/athletes.