Cavs post rare C of I sweep

10/24/2014 9:40:00 PM

PORTLAND, Ore.—Starting its final home weekend of the regular season on a strong note, Concordia University defeated College of Idaho 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-19) on Friday night in a key battle of teams battling for top positions in the CCC standings.

With four matches remaining, Concordia (14-7, 11-3 CCC) grabbed sole possession of third place in the CCC standings, two games behind co-leaders Eastern Oregon and Southern Oregon. Concordia will host No. 8-ranked EOU on Saturday for Senior Day. Opening serve against the Mountaineers is set for 5 p.m. inside the Cavalier Gymnasium where CU will honor its three seniors in a pre-match ceremony.

College of Idaho (12-10, 9-4 CCC), who was playing without top middle blocker Kylie Porter on Friday, fell to fourth in the league standings and will play at Warner Pacific tomorrow.

The Cavs posted a wire-to-wire win in the first set after opening up a 5-1 advantage that included a pair of early kills by Brianna Hogan (Portland, Ore./Centennial H.S.). The lead jumped to 18-9 on a Brenna Huwe (Troutdale, Ore./Reynolds H.S.) swing as the Cavs hit .414 in the opener en route to the eight-point win.

With an 8-2 run midway through the second set which established a 15-9 lead, College of Idaho broke open a back-and-forth second set behind eight kills alone by Bailee Kendall.

Woeking their way back from the deficit, Hogan and Lindsey Dorsey (Salem, Ore./Sprague H.S.) traded terminations for Concordia to eventually knot the set at 23-all on an Ashly Jibby ace. Jibby returned with one of her seven kills while a combined block by Hogan and setter Jenessa Taylor (Beaverton, Ore./Sunset H.S.) completed the comeback win for the Cavs.

Down to its last set, College of Idaho held seven different leads in the third, but never by more than two points at any given circumstance. Janessa Koelliker provided the bulk of the attack in the final set, but the Concordia offense continued to click, hitting .412 in the finale for the 25-19 match-sealing win.

Dorsey wound up leading both teams with 14 kills and was followed by 12 successful swings by Hogan, who was charged with just two errors for a .556 hitting percentage.
Kendall led the Yotes with 13 kills and was followed by 10 from Ottinger and eight from setter Sierra porter, who hit .800 in the night while adding 32 assists.

Not only did the win snap a four match losing streak to the Yotes, the win represented the first Concordia sweep against College of Idaho since Oct. 25, 2003—a span of 27 matches.