Mariana Toscano came up with five of CU's 11 kills in the fifth game against NCU on Friday.
Concordia Comes Back from the Brink to Defeat Beacons
BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore.—Facing an 0-2 deficit, the Concordia University volleyball team rallied to take the final three games en route to a 3-2 (19-25, 17-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-12) win over Northwest Christian on Friday night.
With the result, Concordia improved to 9-6 overall with a 6-2 mark in Cascade Collegiate Conference play while NCU dropped to 4-12 overall and 0-8 in the CCC. Concordia will host Corban College on Saturday night while NW Christian will travel to Warner Pacific. Both matches are set to start at 7 p.m. in Portland.
“We came out flat and NCU played really well,” CU head coach Melanie Hambelton said. “It felt like it was a match where we couldn’t get confidence and had to battle for every point.”
Hitting .289 in the first game behind five kills from Kayla Hansen, NCU stormed out of the gate, taking five of the first six points before CU came back to tie the game at 9-9. The Cavs would create a three-point gap with the score 14-11 but the Beacons quickly responded to stake a three-point advantage of their own on an ace by Whitney Hoff to make it a 21-18 contest. The spurt would continue as the Beacons would score the game’s final eight points for the 25-19 win.
Keeping the streak going, NCU snared the first five points of the second game with the benefit of kills by Kalyssa Koontz (Brownville, Ore.) and Emily Miller (Creswell, Ore.). A Taylor Hatleberg (Eugene, Ore.) ace gave the Beacons an eight-point lead in which the Cavs wound not recover, eventually falling 25-17 to put their backs against the wall.
After alternating points in the third, CU generated the next five for a 6-1 lead to boost the home squad to a 25-16 win. Hitting .361 in the game after being held to -.114 in the second, Concordia got a balanced attack as five different Cavaliers posted three kills.
Separation was hard to come by in the opening moments of the fourth as the score stayed within a pair of points until the Cavs scored three straight, the latter two by NCU attacking errors, to claim a 10-6 lead. The Beacons would march back to within a single point based on a CU attack error, making the score 17-16, but the Cavs would hold off the charge to even the match at 2-2 with the 25-21 win.
The decisive game mirrored the previous frame as Concordia opened up a slim lead only to see the Beacons rally. After a Miller Ace to cut the CU lead to 11-10, the Cavs would close out the match with four out of the next five points.
NCU’s Miller led the floor with 21 kills on 47 attacks for a sparkling .404 success rate. Concordia’s Mariana Toscano (Portland, Ore.) collected 19 kills while teammates Raluca Dinca (Portland, Ore.)and McKenzie Rath (Selah, Wash.) each reached double figures in the department. The Beacons held a slight edge over the Cavs in attack percentage with the final numbers .211-to-.205.
CU’s Skyler Kamaka (Kaneohe, Hawaii) posted 53 assists, three shy of her career high. NCU’s Mercedes LeClaire (Mapleton, Ore.) dug 26 balls to lead the floor. Kim Lindow (Gresham, Ore.) was two behind with 24 to lead the Cavs.