CUNE volleyball defeats Hastings, maintaining undefeated record
Photo description: The CUNE volleyball team huddles together and celebrates after winning a match
Photo credit: CUNE Photo Library
Madeline Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia volleyball team beat the Hastings College Broncos 3-1 Tuesday evening in the beginning of their Great Plains Athletic Conference season.
The GPAC season opener for the Bulldogs was a nail-biter against the Broncos who were ranked 24th in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics preseason coaches poll. Concordia, ranked 4th in the same poll, won two out of their three sets narrowly, with Hastings encroaching on the 20-point mark. Concordia won the first set 25-19, lost the second 25-21 and won the third and fourth sets 25-18 and 25-12 respectively.
The first set saw a narrow lead from Hastings that was maintained until halfway through, when Concordia tied it 13-13 and snatched the lead. Hastings was unable to come back substantially, giving the set to the Bulldogs. The second set was much of the same early on, but instead of taking the lead halfway through, the two teams went back and forth with Hastings scoring a point and Concordia tying the set up again. Eventually, the Broncos were the ones to break ahead and take the set.
The third set was similar to the first even down to the 13-13 tie, but the fourth set was a dominant performance that the Broncos could not handle. The Bulldogs took an early lead and maintained it throughout the set, going on a 17-7 point run.
Junior Gabi Nordaker led the team in kills with 14 with senior Camryn Opfer right behind with 13. Sophomore Ashley Keck had 11 kills as well. Senior Bree Burtwistle led the team in assists with 46 and junior Rebecca Gebhardt had the most digs with 13.
The team is now 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the GPAC. The team travels to North Sioux City for their next games for the Labor Day Classic hosted by College of Saint Mary. They face Rocky Mountain College on Sept. 1 at 12 p.m. to start off their series. The Bulldogs return home on Sept. 9 to face the 9th ranked NAIA team, Midland University, to continue the GPAC season.
