Late-Season Success Streak Continues At St. Benedict

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (10/29/22)---Concordia might want to petition the MIAC to see if they can extend the regular season by one more week. The Cobbers continued their late-season tear as they beat playoff-bound St. Benedict 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-21).

The win is the second straight of the weekend for Concordia. It is also the fourth victory in the last six matches and the seventh in the past 11 contests.

At one point, the Cobbers were 1-3 in the MIAC and looked to be headed toward the bottom of the MIAC. Concordia proceeded to turn its season around and missed the conference playoffs by a single match.

The Cobbers ended league play with a 5-6 record which places them seventh in the final conference standings. CC's MIAC mark was only one match behind St. Benedict and Augsburg who earned the final two spots in the league playoffs.

Concordia's five conference wins are the most since the 2016 season. The Cobbers end the year with a 9-15 overall record.

St. Benedict (14-11, 6-5 MIAC) won eight of the first 11 points in the opening set and didn't trail after Concordia opened the match with a service ace by Kaia Lill.

The second set stayed within two points all the way until the final stretch when the Bennies grabbed a 19-16 lead.

The next stretch of the set was the key to the entire match. The Cobber were six points away being down 2-0, but then came up with the critical 7-0 run to take a 23-19 lead. CC would finish off the second set with kills from Lill and Anna Brakke, and the match would be tied at 1-1.

Concordia dropped the first point of the third set, didn't trail after that point and claimed a 25-19 win. The key stretch of the third set came toward the start when CC turned a 6-4 lead into a 6-point lead at 10-4.

The Cobbers clinched the fourth set, and the match, with a 5-0 streak after the bout was tied at 17-17. CC went up 22-17 and then 24-19 before CSB won the next two points. An attack error by the Bennies on the next point gave Concordia their fifth league win of the year.

Concordia hit .216 and had 52 kills in the four sets, while St. Benedict had a .165 attack percentage and dropped 54 winners.

Brakke, Brook Carney and Maria Watt all had double-digit kill totals for the Cobbers. Seniors Brakke and Carney both had a team-high 13 kills. Watt finished with 11 winners and a team-high .400 attack percentage.

Lill ended the match with 38 assists, and ended the year with 815 helpers in all matches and 386 in conference play. Her 815 assists on the season are 17th most in program history.

Brakke was also one of three CC players with at least 10 digs. She came away with 14 digs to post her 10th double-double of the year.

Chloe Markovic had a match-high 24 digs and Hanna Mooney recorded 15. Markovic finished the year with 432 digs which is sixth most in the MIAC and ninth most in program history in a single season.