Mariana Toscano reached double figures with 11 kills and 10 digs against Cascade on Saturday.
Cavaliers Survive Slow Start to Defeat Cascade in Four
PORTLAND, Ore.–Not letting the first-set setback, set them back, the Concordia volleyball team took control of the next three rounds to defeat Cascade 3-1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-12, 25-14) in Cascade Collegiate Conference action on Saturday.
With the win, Concordia improved to 10-6 on the season and 6-2 on the conference while Cascade dropped to 4-9 overall and 1-7 in league play.
With Cascade’s Natalie Forgan accumulating five of her 16 kills in the first set, the Thunderbirds outlasted the Cavaliers 25-22 in the opening set that featured 14 ties. Concordia outhit Cascade .182 to .161 but four service errors doomed the Cavs to enter the second set in comeback mode.
“We took some things for granted coming into the first set and in a situation where we should have been focused on making some committed growth in aspects of our game we ended up having to go into survival mode,” Concordia head coach Christopher Duenow said. “We ended up playing without a lot of purpose.”
The Cavs stormed through the next two sets hitting .417 in the second to take a 25-16 win and improving to a .480 rate in the third before finishing the Thunderbirds with a 25-14 win in the fourth.
“We showed a renewed focus as well as showing some patience which resulted in us being able to keep a more consistent pressure whether we were playing at a high level or not,” Duenow said.
Forgan led the floor with 16 kills while Lindsay Fryer, who hit .579 in 19 attempts, notched 12 kills to lead the Cavaliers. Concordia’s Jamie Richards and Kim Lindow shared the match-high with 12 digs.
“Cascade came out very aggressive and very physical,” Duenow said. “They showed today that they are becoming a team that will shake things up in the conference.”
Concordia returns to play on ob Oct. 3 when it travels to The College of Idaho for a 7 p.m. match in Caldwell.