Concordia advances to CCC Championship with 3-2 win over EOU
CALDWELL, Idaho—In a rematch of an NAIA National Game of the Week from earlier in the season that ended up living up to its billing, Concordia University upset No. 25-ranked Eastern Oregon in another five-set thriller on Friday to advance to finale of CCC Championships presented by U.S. Bank.
With the 3-2 (21-25, 25-17, 25-20, 23-25, 15-9) win, Concordia (23-6) will move on to face the winner of the evening match between No. 1-seeded College of Idaho and No. 4-seeded Southern Oregon with the overall winner gaining the league's automatic berth into the NAIA National Championships.
Kicking off the back-and-forth battle,
Jackie Stein (Portland, Ore./Westview H.S.) and
Melanie Miller (Hillsboro, Ore./Liberty H.S.) gave the Cavs an early 4-2 lead in the first set before the Mountaineers fired off four straight points for a two-point lead of their own. An
Anna Chizum (Happy Valley, Ore./Clackamas H.S.) ace knotted the set at 6-6 but the Cavs failed to completely overtake EOU as the Mountaineers hit .311 to claim the opener.
EOU would go up by as many as five points (11-6), but the Cavs, buoyed by four aces, rallied to within a single point on three occasions, the final instance at 19-18, but the Mountaineers would not break, carrying out several long rallies to maintain the lead and earn the initial win.
The Cavs once again took an early lead in the second set, this time with Miller and
Amanda Goringe (Aloha, Ore./Aloha H.S.) providing CU with a 13-8 advantage, its largest lead in the match at the point. Moments later,
Brianna Hogan (Portland, Ore./Centennial H.S.) connected on back-to-back kills for a six-point CU lead at 17-11 before consecutive blocks by
Mariah Raudsepp (Dundee, Ore./C.S. Lewis Academy) closed out the set.
Looking to reclaim the momentum in the match, Eastern Oregon jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the third set with Casey Loper serving for an ace and Stefani Sorensen recording a kill as part of the burst. The Cavs leveled the set at 12-12 on a block by Miller and Goringe and the duo would return, with the addition of Hogan, to block the next two attacks for a 14-12 lead.
The Cavs increased its lead to four with a Raudsepp slide-kill to make it 18-14, but Eastern Oregon formed a quick response to pull within a point at 19-18 with an ace from Jesslyn Smith. A 5-1 spree by the Cavs doomed the comeback attempt as Goringe closed out the set on a Mangan-assisted kill.
The fourth set featured a pair of extended runs by each team before the Mountaineers engineered the match-tying win. Tied 6-6 in the fourth, EOU put together a 7-1 stretch and later pushed its lead to seven on a Sorensen swing for a 16-9 spread.
With key kills from Miller, the Cavs battled back to even the score at 18-18. Following a kill by Emma Richards for a Mountaineer lead, Concordia looked to earn a sideout on an apparent attack which sailed too deep, but a call saying the ball landed inside the line gave EOU a two-point lead (20-18) with set-point just around the corner.
Loper scored the first strike in the fifth set before three straight points by CU overturned the lead. Miller and Hogan gave CU a 6-3 lead which forced an EOU timeout. With just two attacking errors, Concordia soon created a six-point advantage while a
Jackie Stein (Portland, Ore./Westview H.S.) kill gave the Cavs match-point at 14-8 before a serving error completed the nearly two-hour match.
"I was impressed by how smart we played today," CU head coach
Melanie Hambelton said. "We stayed within ourselves while Lindsay (Mangan) did a great job leading and distributing the ball," Hambelton said. "Mel (Miller) was outstanding. We knew we needed to get her involved offensively and her work, along with several others, on the block really shut down EOU."
Miller paced the Cavs with 15 kills and was followed by 13 kills from Hogan, 12 from Stein and 10 from Goringe. Miller and Goringe each had eight block assists to give the Cavs a 14.0-to-10.0 advantage over the Mountaineers.
Shantel Gritsch (Gresham, Ore./Clackamas H.S.) and Leslie hanks reached for 22 and 21 digs, respectively, while Mangan ended the evening with 54 assists and 17 digs. Overall, CU outhit the Mountaineers, .196 to .138.
"We really like the word 'relentless' and that's what we were tonight. Leslie (Hanks) really stepped up for us, but all-around, we were determined to get the ball. We had laser-like focus and believed in each other and that's really what got the job done," Hambelton said.
Sorensen finished with 15 kills; one up on teammate Loper and three more than Taylor Stewart. Jesslyn Smith got to a match-high 42 digs and Karly Stack served up 56 assists and added 17 digs.