No. 18 Bulldogs Continue to Win

by Garrett Suchanek

This weekend proved to be a successful one for the No. 18 Concordia volleyball team as the Bulldogs won a pair of conference games on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 2 and 3) to improve to 18-4 overall and 6-1 in GPAC.

Friday night, the Bulldogs took care of a gritty Morningside College team in four sets 25-17, 21-25, 25-18 and 25-16.

The Bulldogs jumped out to a quick lead in the first set and powered the Mustangs with a .276 hitting percentage.

In the second set, the Mustangs played great defense to create points and nodded the match at 1-1 with five blocks in the set.

Concordia bounced back and sprinted to an 8-2 lead in the third set. However, Morningside responded with seven straight points to take a 9-8 lead and force the Bulldogs to call a timeout.

After the timeout, the Bulldogs responded well and ran away with the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

In what turned out to be the final set of the match, the Bulldogs found their groove as they cruised to a 25-16 set win. Concordia sported a .350 hitting percentage for the set.

Juniors Tiegen Skains and Paige Getz led Concordia in the match with 14 and 13 kills respectively.

Sophomore Annie Friesen, junior Taylor Workman and senior Claire White also added 9 kills apiece.

Junior Alayna Kavanaugh had 43 assists and two kills.

Saturday afternoon, Concordia dropped Briar Cliff in a four set match and won 25-16, 15-25, 25-19 and 25-21.

The Bulldogs came out hot against the Chargers as they hit .469 for the opening set.

However, the Chargers responded with hot offense of their own in the second set with a hitting percentage of .458 to even the match at 1-1.

Concordia’s defense picked up in the third set, and the team pulled away late in the set to secure a 2-1 advantage.

In the fourth set, the Chargers battled to a lead midway through the set. However, the Bulldogs went on a run late in the match to pull away and clinch the match victory.

Junior Taylor Workman led the Bulldogs with 13 kills. Senior Claire White and sophomore Annie Friesen each added 12 kills.

Junior Alayna Kavanaugh dished out 44 assists for the match.

The Bulldogs will travel to Hastings to take on Hastings College at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7.