Concordia Volleyball Overcomes Midland, Heads to GPAC Championship
Madeline Peters
Sower Staff
The Concordia volleyball team beat the Midland University Warriors 3-2 Wednesday night. The Bulldogs came back from losing both previous Midland matches including a sweep to defeating them in the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament semifinals.
The first set was a close back and forth match between the two teams. Neither team was able to get too far ahead with the largest point difference being four. Concordia eventually won the set 26-24.
The second set was controlled by Midland. The Bulldogs struggled to keep up with the Warriors and ultimately lost the set 25-17. The third set was more competitive. Concordia held the lead for most of the set, but Midland pulled ahead and won the set 25-21.
The Bulldogs dominated in the fourth set. The team managed to keep ahead of the Warriors and forced them to play catch-up. Whenever Midland scored a point, Concordia would respond with two more. Concordia’s lead maxed out at seven points and they won the set 25-18.
The final set was incredible for the Bulldogs. They took an early lead and hit the Warriors with a staggering nine-point run taking the score to 10-3. Midland started to come back, but Concordia kept steady and won the final set 15-10.
Sophomore Gabi Nordaker had the most kills of the night with 16. Senior Camryn Opfer followed closely behind with 15. Sophomore Carly Rodaway and freshman Ashley Keck also had a notable number of kills with 12 and 11 respectively. Junior Bree Burtwhistle led the team in assists with 54 and sophomore Rebecca Gebhardt led the team in digs with 21.
The team is now 23-4 overall and heads to Jamestown, N.D. on Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. for the GPAC championship game in a rematch of last year’s tournament.
