Seniors Power Cavs to Sweep on Senior Night
STATS - Concordia vs. Warner Pacific
PORTLAND, Ore.--Playing in their final home match of their career, Concordia seniors powered the Cavs to a 3-0 (25-10, 26-24, 25-9) sweep over Warner Pacific College on Friday.
Concordia improved to 15-10 on the season and 10-8 in CCC play while Warner Pacific will end the year at 3-16 overall and 2-16 in league play. CU will now await results from Northwest University to determine which team will secure the fourth and final CCC tournament spot. The Cavs need Northwest to lose to Corban on Saturday to keep their hopes alive for the final spot.
The Cavs came out inspired in the first set, jumping out to a 9-2 lead with kill contributions from four seniors and an ace by the fifth in libero Aubrie Concannon. The early momentum continued as the Cavs extended its lead to 17-4 following a WPC attacking error. Skyler Kamaka added the team's third ace of the set for a 23-8 score before Aria Nojima slammed the set winner with an assist from Lindsay Mangan.
Concordia played so well in the first that they did not allow Warner Pacific to score consecutive points till the Knights strung two together to make it 21-8 late in the set.
However, that small change in momentum when Concordia was rolling late in the first paid dividends for the Knights in the second as they ran out to an early 9-5 lead. Warner Pacific was also bolstered by winning a couple of long points that included miraculous digs from their backline led by libero Jacalyn Chew-Dorsey.
Concordia proved ready for the counter attack, though, as they bounced back from the 9-5 Knights lead with a seven-point run of their own. From there, the Cavs inched out to an 18-14 lead, but the Knights came right back to tie it at 18-18. After that, Concordia pushed ahead again only to have the Knights come back again to tie it a 24-24 on their serve. However, consecutive kills from Concordia’s Melanie Miller and Nojima gave the Cavs the set victory.
Now a set away from the victory and with the momentum, Concordia jumped on the Knights early, running out to a 15-3 lead. Senior Clair Thiel Thiel helped the Cavs with two early kills in the set while fellow senior Cassandra Koering had two as well. Seniors Nojima and Kamaka then took the Cavs the rest of the way with three kills apiece for the 25-9 set victory.
Overall, Concordia hit .228 with averages of .406 and .320 in the first and third sets respectively. Individually, the Cavs spread out the attack as five different players recorded six or more kills. Those five players included four seniors in Nojima (10), Koering (7), Thiel (6) and Kamaka (6), while Miller added eight kills of her own to go with 16 digs. Concannon, meanwhile, recorded 19 digs in her final match at home as a Cavalier. Finally, sophomore setter Lindsay Mangan totaled 35 assists on 114 total attacks.
For Warner Pacific, Kaylin Elms led the team with six kills and a .250 hitting percentage. In addition, Chew-Dorsey recorded 17 digs at libero and setter Kelsey Kurtz totaled 20 assists.