Concordia's Jackie Stein was one of three Cavalier players to record at least 10 kills against the Beacons on Tuesday.
Cavs Advance to CCC Semifinals with 3-1 win over NCU
BOX SCORE - Concordia vs. Northwest Christian
PORTLAND, ORE.—Playing for a spot in the CCC Semifinals, the Concordia volleyball defeated Northwest Christian 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-10) in CCC Opening Round action on Tuesday.
With the win, Concordia (17-9) advances to the final site of the CCC Tournament where they’ll face top-seeded College of Idaho at 6 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. local time) on Friday, Nov. 9.
The Beacons, meanwhile, end their season 17-12 overall with the loss. The Beacons’ 17 wins this season set a school record for the six-year program (previous best was 13 in 2006), while this year’s team also qualified for the conference tournament for the first time in school history.
Concordia proved too tough for the Beacons on Saturday, as they outhit Northwest Christian .264-to-.137 in the match.
It took a while for the Cavaliers to get on track in the first set however, as Concordia fell behind 15-11 to the Beacons early, forcing Concordia head coach Melanie Hambelton to take a time out. Whatever Hambelton said in the time out seemed to work though, as the Cavaliers came out and immediately went on a 12-2 to run to take their first set point at 24-17. Defense led the Cavaliers in their big run as the Cavaliers got three blocks and forced the Beacons into seven total attacking errors during that stretch of play.
A kill from Brianna Hogan finally ended the set at 25-19, handing the early match lead to the Cavaliers.
Concordia’s late run in the first seemingly bled into the second too, as the Cavs never trailed in the set, and ran out to a 6-2 lead off back-to-back kills from Jackie Stein. Northwest Christian got back within two at 17-15 off a solo block from Taylor Richardson, but the Cavs came back to finish the set on an 8-4 run.
Stein and Mariah Raudsepp led the Cavs overall in the set as each finished with four kills and no errors in the second.
However, the Beacons, now down two sets to none, fired back with a highly competitive third set that featured 12 ties and six lead changes.
Neither team could take much of an early advantage, though Concordia seemingly took control of the with a 6-1 run that put them up 13-11 after trailing 10-7. However, the Beacons immediately responded with a 6-1 run of their own to take the lead back at 17-14.
Concordia worked its way back to a 21-20 lead late, but the Beacons again answered the call, winning four of the next five points to take their first set point at 24-21. The Cavaliers scored the next two points to cut the Beacons’ lead to one at 24-23, but a kill from the Beacons’ Tami Brown on the next point closed out the set for Northwest Christian.
Brown easily had her best all-around set in the third as the senior middle blocker had five kills, six digs, a solo block and a block assist in the third set alone.
Fortunately for Concordia, the Cavaliers responded well to the lost set, running out to a 14-4 lead that they would not relinquish. Hogan’s third kill of the set to that point punctuated the early run for Concordia, while the Cavaliers easily closed out the Beacons from there.
Concordia played by far its best defense of the match in the fourth as they held Northwest Christian to -.086 hitting in the set. On the flip side, the Cavaliers hit .375 in the fourth, totaling 13 kills against only one attacking error.
Overall, the Beacons’ Brown led all players with 18 kills in the match, while she also completed a double-double with 17 digs. Besides Brown, Maren Mansfield also went into double digits with 10 kills for the Beacons on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, three players had double-digit kill totals for the Cavaliers, led by Hogan’s 14, which she recorded against just two errors. After Hogan, Stein had the next highest total for the Cavs with 11 kills, while Raudsepp finished third on the team with 10. Besides those three though, Melanie Miller, Amanda Gorine and setter Lindsay Mangan all had at least five kills in the match as well, giving the Cavs six different players with at least five kills.
Mangan got her five kills while also recording 48 assists, six digs and two block assists. The 48 assists tied a conference match high for a four-set match, and marked the 12th time Mangan had cracked the 40-assist plateau this season.
Finally, libero Kelsey Kai led all players with 25 digs, upping her conference-leading digs per set average to 5.87.