Cobbers Close Out Non-Conference Campaign

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. (10/14/23)---Concordia dropped a pair of matches to Wis.-River Falls and Minn.-Morris in the final non-conference contests of the year.

The Cobbers won the opening set in their match with River Falls, but then the Falcons came flying back and won the next three sets to post a 3-1 victory (20-25, 25-10, 25-15, 25-13). The second match of the day was a rollercoaster ride as Concordia grabbed a 2-1 lead only to have the Cougars win two straight sets and come away with a 3-2 (25-11, 21-25, 26-28, 25-17, 15-7) win.

Concordia's record line is now even across the board. The Cobbers are 11-11 in all matches, 3-3 in league play and finished the year with an 8-8 mark in non-conference matches.

River Falls improves to 16-7, while Morris is 14-5 and has won seven of its last eight matches.

In the first match of the day, Concordia hit .345 in the opening set and didn't hit over .090 in the next three sets. The Cobbers finished the match with River Falls by hitting .096 as opposed to .257 for the Falcons.

Hannah Keil was the only CC player with more than eight kills in the match. She finished with 10 winners and hit .217. Kaia Lill had 31 assists and Chloe Markovic added 12 digs.

The match against Morris turned at the start of the fourth set. After Concordia took a 2-1 lead by claiming a 28-26 win in the third set, the Cougars won the first six points of the fourth set and eventually pushed that lead to a 12-3 margin. CC was never able to recover and fell 25-17.

The fourth set was more of the same, with Morris jumping out to a big early lead. The Cobbers won the first point of the fifth set, but then Morris won seven straight points to take a 7-1 lead. CC would fight back to get to within three points at 10-7 before the Cougars closed out the match with a 5-0 run.

Concordia hit .205 in the second match. Brook Carney came away with 11 kills to lead the offense. Madison Kisch had a team-high .217 hitting percentage and added seven kills. Lill posted 34 more assists, and Markovic had a team-high 28 digs.

UP NEXT: Concordia will host Bethel and Augsburg in the annual home conference doubleheader weekend. The Cobbers will face the Royals on Friday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. and then match up with Augsburg on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m.