Balanced Effort On Offense And Defense Leads To Back-To-Back Wins

MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/19/21)---What's better than one win at home? How about back-to-back wins at home.

Concordia rallied from a 1-0 deficit, won the last three sets and beat Minn.-Morris 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-23) to win its second consecutive home match. The victory also avenges a 3-1 loss at Morris earlier in the year where the Cobbers won the first set and watched as the Cougars won three straight.

Concordia (8-14) used its most balanced offensive attack of the year to pull away from Morris. The Cobbers had five players with at least seven kills in the game – and four of those had at least nine winners.

Junior Brook Carney led the team in kills for the second straight match. She came through with 11 winners and hit .233. It was her seventh double-digit kill total of the year, and second time this season she has posted back-to-back matches with at least 10 winners.

Anna Brakke, Peyton Selle and Hannah Keil all had nine kills in the game. Brakke also had 22 digs, while Selle had five blocks and Keil had three blocks.

Brakke topped the 20-dig mark for the fifth time this year. The five blocks are a career high for Selle, and the nine winners is one shy of her top match.       

Chloe Markovic led all players with a career-high five service aces. She now has 10 winners off the serve in the last three matches and is tied for the team lead with 28 aces on the year.

The Cobbers' setting tandem of Mariah Iwen and Kenzie Urbanec both did a good job of getting the ball to the CC attackers in spots where they could finish – and both put up similar numbers. Iwen had 26 assists and eight digs, while Urbanec had 21 helpers and nine digs.

Concordia hit above .100 in all three of the final sets and finished with an attack percentage of .172 for the match. The Cobbers also reached the 50-kill mark for the third straight match and the seventh time this season.

The CC defense had a solid outing as evidenced by the 92 digs and 10 total team blocks. It is the fifth time this year that Concordia has had at least 90 digs in a match and fourth time they have racked up a double-digit block total. They now have 1,540 digs as a team which leads the MIAC.  

The Cobbers also finished with 10 service aces for the night. It is the second time in the last three matches they have reached a double-digit ace total – and fourth for the entire season. CC now has 132 service aces on the year which is third most in the MIAC.    

UP NEXT: Concordia will finish off the season with four league matches. The Cobbers will have their final road weekend of the year when they play at Gustavus on Friday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. and then head to Northfield to take on St. Olaf on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 1 p.m. The Gusties are currently ranked 25th in the latest DIII national rankings.