PORTLAND, Ore.—The Concordia volleyball team closed out a home sweep in their first weekend of conference play, beating rival Corban University 3-1 (25-18, 25-17, 23-25, 25-18) on Saturday.

 

The win gives CU a share of the conference lead at 2-0 and improves their overall record to 6-2.

 

The night did not go without a little drama, though, as Corban battled back late in the third set to extend the game to a fourth.

 

At the start of the third, Concordia took as much as a seven-point lead at 9-2. Corban found an answer quickly though, and crawled back in the set to knot it at 13-13. The Cavs responded themselves, pushing their lead back up to 19-15. However, at that point, a service error to give the serve back to Corban at 19-16 where the Warriors took advantage by scoring nine of the next eleven points to go up 24-22 before closing out the set and pushed the match into a fourth.

 

Riding the momentum of the previous set win, Corban took early leads at 10-7 and 13-10 in the fourth. They would only score five more points from there though as the Cavalier attack picked it up from there. CU junior outside hitter Jane Moesche had four big kills late in the fourth to give Concordia its 21st, 23rd, 24th and 25th points in the set. Thiel also played big in the set, knocking down four kills off five attacks.

 

Corban’s offense let itself down in the decisive fourth set, hitting only .026 percent with nine errors against 10 kills. The Cavs meanwhile hit .268 with fifteen kills, five of which came from Moesche.

 

Over the whole night, neither team could take a decisive lead till late in the sets.

 

That trend started in the first when both teams couldn’t separate themselves from each other. Concordia led most of the way, but didn’t have more than a three-point lead until going up 19-15 late, at which point the Cavs were able to close the set out.

 

Concordia committed only three errors compared to eight for the Warriors in the set, which gave them the chance to push up their late lead in spite of Corban’s advantage in kills (15-to-13). Corban junior outside hitter Chandra Baskoro led the strong Warrior attack with a set-high five kills against 12 attacks and no errors.

 

In the second, Corban edged ahead early, but like Concordia in the first, could not get any lead larger than two. At 14-14, the Cavaliers moved past the Warriors for good, but did not have a lead bigger than two points until creating a 19-16 gap. Again they were able to close out from there, winning six of the last seven points in the set.

 

Both teams only had four errors in the set, but Concordia recorded 15 kills compared to only nine for Corban and outhit the warriors .379 to .172. CU sophomore setter Lindsay Mangan spread her 12 assists in the set around pretty evenly as six Cavalier players had two kills or more. Senior outside hitter Aria Nojima led all players with four kills off five attacks with one error.

 

Overall, Concordia had three hitters record double digit kills in Nojima, Moesche and Thiel. Moesche led all players with 15 kills on the night. CU’s Mangan also had another solid game running the attack with a match-high 48 assists. On the flip side, Corban freshman middle blocker Courtney Mulford gave the Cavs trouble all night in the middle, blocking nine attacks (8 assists, 1 solo) including four alone in Corban’s third-set victory. Freshman outside hitter Rebecca Shafer also played well in the middle with six assists on blocks, giving Corban 11 (18 assisted, 2 solo) blocks as a team. On offense, Baskoro led the Warriors with 14 kills and 39 attacks with only one error.

 

The loss drops Corban’s overall record to 7-3 and evens their conference record at 1-1. They’ll host Eastern Oregon University and College of Idaho next weekend September 9 and 10.

 

Concordia, meanwhile, travels to Forest Grove, Ore. on Tuesday, September 6 to play a non-conference game against Pacific University. They move back to conference play with games at Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech over the weekend.