CU Defeats Warner Pacific in Key CCC Contest
BOX SCORE -
Concordia vs. Warner Pacific
PORTLAND, Ore.—In a battle of one-loss teams in the CCC, Concordia defeated cross-town rival Warner Pacific 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-13) on Friday night inside the Cavalier Gymnasium.
With the result, Concordia improved to 7-5 overall on the season and 4-1 in league play, while WPC fell to 7-4 and 3-2 in CCC matches.
Concordia held late leads in all five sets on Friday, but could not fight off a resilient Warner Pacific team until the fifth.
Warner Pacific had goneon late runs in the second and fourth sets to steal two from Concordia, and nearly did the same thing in the fifth.
The Cavaliers earned three match points on the Knights after CU’s Mariah Raudsepp smacked down a kill to make it 14-11. However, as had been their nature the whole match, the Knights crawled back, saving two match points to come within one at 14-13.
Fortunately for the Cavs, setter Lindsay Mangan made a crafty play on the Cavs’ final match point, faking a set while instead flicking the ball over the net. Mangan’s move caught the Knights off guard and delivered the victory by the narrowest of margins to the Cavaliers.
Mangan’s play perfectly capped a career night for the Concordia junior, who set a new career-high with 57 assists in the match. Mangan’s total of 57 assists set a new conference season-high by six and stands just six assists off the national season-high of 63, set by Alison Lunde of Montana Tech. Mangan was not just confined to assists on Friday though, as she also finished the match with 11 digs, six kills and two block assists.
Mangan’s big night came at just the right time for the Cavs too, as they likely would not have eeked out the close victory without her.
Earlier in the match, a tight opening set went to the Cavaliers after they scored the final four points. After a pair of attacking errors by the Knights, freshman Brianna Hogan capped the string with a kill off a feed from fellow freshman Shantel Gritsch.
Then, in a reverse of the opener, WPC created plays when it needed to in the latter parts of the second set. Sandwiching a block by Rylie Engelson between kills from Devan Belshe and Nicole Lisoski, the Knights scored three of the final four points of the set to even the match with a 25-22 victory.
Concordia had led the second set at 17-13, but the Knights scored nine of the next 12 points in the match to take the advantage late. Rylie Engelson led the Knights in the run as she recorded two kills, two assists and a block assist to account for five of the nine points herself.
The third set, meanwhile, featured 11 ties--the last with the score squared at 16-16--before CU retook control of the match. At 16-16, the Cavs received an ace off the serve of Kelsey Kai and kills from Raudsepp and Jackie Stein to take a 20-16 lead and force a WPC timeout.
Not disturbed by the quick stoppage, however, Stein and Amanda Goringe recorded two more kills each before the pair teamed up to for a block on a WPC attack to conclude the third set with a 25-20 CU win.
Looking to avoid the fifth set, the home side gathered a quick 7-1 lead in the fourth with Hogan leading the attack. The Knights slowly chipped away at the deficit though, and saw their patience pay off a few minutes later when they tied the score at 19-19. The two teams traded several points after that, but CU sat on the cusp of the sealing the win when they claimed a 23-22 lead late.
However, it was all Warner Pacific from there as three quick points—two kills from Belshe and Engelson and a block—stunned the CU home crowd.
The Cavaliers bounced back in the final set though, hitting .265 on 13 kills, good enough to overcome another Knights comeback.
Overall, both teams played well defensively, as they both held the other team to under .200 hitting.
In addition, the match featured several outstanding individual performances on either side. Engelson had a career night for Warner Pacific, finishing with a rare triple-double as she recorded 16 kills, 25 assists and 12 digs. Belshe, meanwhile, led all attackers with 22 kills and completed her own double-double with 18 digs.
For Concordia, Hogan and Stein finished with 16 and 15 kills, respectively, to lead the Cavaliers attack. Raudsepp and Melanie Miller also finished with double-digit kills for Concordia, ending the night with 11 and 10 kills, respectively.
Finally, Concordia libero Kelsey Kai led all players with 44 digs in the match, more than doubling her old career-high of 20, set in a four-set match against Northwest Christian earlier this season.