Concordia volleyball defeats Lancers in four-set match

The Concordia volleyball team prepares for their match against Oklahoma City University on Aug. 17 (photo from previous match)

Photo credit: Maddy Peters, Sports Editor

By Cohen Carpenter

Concordia continued its dominant start to the season Wednesday, defeating the Mount Marty Lancers in four sets (25-20, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15) to improve their record to 8-1 on the season.

The victory marks seven straight years that Concordia has won their opening matchup against a Great Plains Athletic Conference opponent—making head coach Ben Boldt undefeated in such contests.

“Our pre-season schedule has prepared us well for GPAC conference play,” said Boldt about his team’s hot starts, “Our team has also done an amazing job of coming into the season in great shape. They work hard over the summer to be ready once the season starts.”

The game began to look as if it would be yet another dominant display against the Lancers, once Bulldog fans have grown accustomed to in recent years as eight of the nine previous matchups between Concordia and Mount Marty have ended in a 3-0 Bulldog sweep.

However, the third set proved tumultuous as Concordia began to let a young Mount Marty team scratch their way back into the contest. In the third, Concordia shot a paltry .205 (as compared to a .300 percentage on the game as a whole) and committed six attacking errors.

Errors proved to be the largest thorn in the Bulldogs’ side Wednesday night, as along with the increased number of attacking errors, Concordia committed 13 service errors, tied for their second highest total on the season.

Nevertheless, Concordia was able to bounce back and close the door on the Lancers in the fourth.

“We continue to learn a lot about our team and how we respond to adversity.” said Boldt, “Mount Marty is a tough team that will surprise a lot of people this year. It was awesome to see our team reset, trust our training and compete after a tough third set. We responded well in the fourth set, didn’t get rattled, and closed out the match.”

Offensively, the Bulldogs had ten players with 10 or more kills on the night, all of whom shot greater than .345. While junior Ashley Keck led the way with 14 kills, it was junior Molli Martin who had by far the most efficient night. The Lincoln native had 10 kills on a .625 shooting percentage with no errors committed.

Leading the way in the backcourt Wednesday night was a pair of juniors. Of Concordia’s 54 assists, Savannah Shelburne led the way with 30 assists and eight digs along with Lily Psencik contributing 18 assists and seven digs.

With the GPAC opener out of the way, and after a stretch of eight games in 16 days to open the season, the Bulldogs will be looking forward to a much-needed hiatus, as Concordia will not see game action for another week.

“We use our rest time as a way to get ready for a long stretch of conference matches,” said Boldt. “This will be our first weekend off since we began with the team in early August. Our team has earned it. Friday will be a tough, competitive practice before Saturday and Sunday being off. Then we’ll start our GPAC prep with practice Monday.”

Volleyball takes the court next Wednesday, Sept. 11 versus the College of Saint Mary (7-4, 0-1 GPAC). First touch will be at 7:30 p.m. in Concordia’s Friedrich Arena.