CU Volleyball Prepares for the Playoffs with Win Over WPC
PORTLAND, Ore.—With its hosting duties of the opening round of the CCC Tournament just around the corner, the Concordia volleyball dispatched Warner Pacific 3-0 in its regular-season finale on Friday night.
With the win, Concordia concluded the regular season with a 16-9 overall record and a 13-5 mark in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. The Cavs have locked into the No. 4 position in the CCC standings and will host the yet to be determined No. 5 seed on Tuesday, Nov. 6. The home playoff match will be the first for CU since the team went 18-0 in the CCC during the 2002 season.
Warner Pacific ends its regular season at 15-11 and 9-9 in the CCC and will now wait until the weekend’s results are complete to determine playoff seeding. In addition to the Knights, Northwest and Northwest Christian remain in contention for the final two playoff spots.
With the help of back-to-back kills from Stein, the Cavaliers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before Warner Pacific got on the board with a Devan Belshe finish. The Knights tacked on two more to cut the deficit to a single point, but the Cavs went on a 6-2 which featured two more kills from Stein to once again extend its lead.
Using a pair of kills off the arm of Ryle Engelson and two attacking errors by the Cavs, the home side returned the set to a one-point gap at 13-12 only to see the Cavs unleash a 12-4 finish. Stein tallied a remarkable 10 kills in the wire-to-wire win for the Cavaliers.
The second set between the cross-town rivals provided added drama as the two teams battled through 13 ties.
Warner Pacific jumped out to a 3-0 lead following kills from Belshe and Krisina Naff. The Cavs knotted the score at 4-4 following a Lindsay Mangan assisted kill to Amanda Goringe, but couldn’t manage a lead until a Stein kill to make the score 13-12.
Leslie Hanks pushed the lead to three at 16-13. Not letting the Cavs pull away, Warner Pacific rallied from the three-point shortfall and later three different Concordia set points. The Knights had their first chance to terminate the set with the score 27-26, but CU’s Lindsay Montgomery came up with a huge hit to keep the game rolling.
Montgomery came back with another kill to give the Cavs a 29-28 lead, but a kill by Belshe prior to two CU attacking errors swung the match into a 1-1 tie. Along with the two late miscues, the Cavs committed just one additional attacking error as the team hit .370 for the set. Warner Pacific, meanwhile, hit .367 with 22 kills and four errors.
A service error gave CU the opening lead in the pivotal third set. Engelson provided the Warner Pacific point for a 1-1 score, but eight straight points by the road team hampered any rollercoaster drama like the previous set.
Forcing a timeout with the score 21-9, Concordia closed out the third set kills from Montgomery, Stein and a service ace by Shantel Gritsch. The Cavs continued its hot hitting with a .462 average while limiting the Knights to .121 en route to the 2-1 lead.
After five ties through a 9-9, Concordia went on an 8-2 run to control the fourth set. With its offense cooling off, the Cavs relied on a stout front line that forced WPC into on five attacking errors to earn the 25-20 win.
Overall, the Cavs outhit the Knights .300 to .147. Stein connected on a match-high 23 kills while teammates Montgomery, Hogan and Goringe each notched 10 kills each.
Concordia libero Kelsey Kai registered a match-high 28 digs while Mangan recorded 48 assists.
Belshe nearly matched Stein with 22 kills of her own while Engelson also reached double figures with 14. Four Knights reached double figures in digs with Samantha Bryan leading the way with 22. Assists were split for the home team with Engelson credited with 27 successful setups and Marchelle Bostic 22.