#7 Concordia-St. Paul outlasted #5 Wayne State College in a five-set Northern Sun Conference volleyball battle Friday evening in St. Paul, Minnesota as the host Golden Bears topped the Wildcats 23-25, 25-16, 25-23, 19-25 and 15-10. CSP stays unbeaten in NSIC play at 10-0 and is now 16-3 overall while WSC slips to 15-3 and 8-2 in league games.
Wayne State forced 12 Golden Bear errors in the first set, highlighted by five blocks, as the Wildcats posted a 25-23 first set win that featured 14 ties and four lead changes.
Concordia-St. Paul stormed back in the second set, taking an early 6-0 lead while cruising to a 25-16 set win. WSC had 10 attack errors in the second set with Jaz DeHaan notching a team-high four kills.
The third set saw the host Golden Bears produce a match-high 16 kills to hold off the Wildcats 25-23 despite two service aces in the set from Kelsie Cada.
The fourth set featured 10 ties and two lead changes early but WSC charged late in the set, breaking an 18-18 tie that ended in a 25-19 Wildcat win to force a fifth set. Cada had seven kills and a service ace in the set to lead the ‘Cats.
The host Golden Bears took an early 6-2 lead in the fifth set with WSC battling back to get as close as one at 8-7 following a Maggie Brahmer block. But CSP scored the next four points to take control of the final set for a 15-10 win.
Concordia-St. Paul hit .132 in the match to just .086 for WSC. The Golden Bears held a 63-44 edge in kills and 103-92 in digs. WSC held a 15-10 advantage in blocks while the Golden Bears had nine service aces to six for WSC.
Cada had 14 kills and 17 digs to lead WSC followed by Taya Beller with 12 kills and Maggie Brahmer 10.
Libero Alaina Wolff had 22 digs followed by Jordan McCormick with 15 and Jessie Brandl 13. Brahmer had seven blocks for WSC followed by setter Rachel Walker with five. Walker accounted for 40 set assists while Cada had three of Wayne State’s six service aces.
Wayne State concludes their NSIC weekend road trip Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. contest at Minnesota State.
