Drawn-out second set battle highlights road sweep of Waldorf
FOREST CITY, Iowa – The second set proved to be a war on Friday (Oct. 4) as the Concordia University Volleyball team played Waldorf for the first time since the Warriors officially joined the GPAC this past summer. The fourth-ranked Bulldogs ultimately won out in Forest City, Iowa, behind a starring performance in the middle from Gabi Nordaker. Concordia .282 for the night while winning its third GPAC road match this season, 25-17, 33-31, 25-13.
This was the first outing for Head Coach Ben Boldt’s squad since its five-set showdown last weekend with top-ranked Northwestern. The Bulldogs have moved to 13-2 overall (6-1 GPAC).
“We came out really focused and we executed really well,” Boldt said. “I think Gabi had seven kills and zero errors in the first set. She was on fire to start – we were really clicking with our offense. We lost a little bit of the close-out mentality in the second set. We were up and Waldorf kept fighting. They didn’t give the match away. We had to earn everything that we were doing. It was fun to see us finish that set. I thought we stayed gritty through that. In the third set, we called a timeout and talked about having a finishing mentality. We really flipped the script mentally and were really aggressive in the third set.”
In that second set, Concordia allowed a 19-12 lead to slip away, setting the stage for the highest-tension moments of the evening. Waldorf had four different set-point opportunities throughout that marathon stretch. Eventually, the Bulldogs found their finishing touch as a 31-31 stalemate was broken up by an Ella Waters kill and a Warrior attack error. Concordia truly did earn the majority of its points in that set as 24 of them came on kills.
The first and third sets were a different story. The Bulldogs hit .457 in the opening set and .286 in the third while taking care of business. Nordaker set the tone early by striking for kills on each of the match’s first three points. Her first five attacks resulted in kills and she finished the night hitting .611 with 13 kills to go along with six blocks. Nordaker was equaled in the kill department by two teammates: Waters and Keck. Waters (.458 hitting percentage) needed only 24 attempts to rack up her 13 kills.
Additionally, Addie Kirkegaard added 10 kills for the victors, who outhit the Warriors, .282 to .090. Setters Lily Psencik and Savannah Shelburne supplied 22 assists apiece while Shandy Fa’ali’i came through with both of the team’s aces. In the back row, Keck and Becca Gebhardt shared a match high 13 digs while Kirkegaard cleaned up in the front row with six blocks to equal Nordaker.
Waldorf (8-8, 2-5 GPAC) was coming off a four-set road win over College of Saint Mary. The Warriors were paced by the nine kills from Kaylin Koch. Waldorf played Concordia as recently as 2019 when it appeared at the Bulldog Bash and fell in straight sets at the hands of the Bulldogs.
It was an overall solid performance on Friday for Concordia. Said Boldt, “Ella had a really good match. She hit over .400. We had three people with 13 kills and had another balanced attack. That was good … We took it home and finished the match strong. I’m really proud of the effort.”
The weekend road trip will continue on Saturday when the Bulldogs will be in Mitchell, S.D., to take on Dakota Wesleyan (8-10, 3-4 GPAC). First serve of the varsity match is set for 3 p.m. CT. Concordia won both of last season’s meeting with the Tigers in straight sets. In Friday night’s action, DWU was beaten at home by No. 18 Midland in four sets.
Gebhardt, Keck star as fourth-ranked Dawgs finish road trip with victory
MITCHELL, S.D. – It was a quick turnaround for the fourth-ranked Concordia University Volleyball team following Friday’s straight sets win at Waldorf in Forest City, Iowa. The Bulldogs trekked to Mitchell, S.D., on Saturday (Oct. 5) and pulled out a win over Dakota Wesleyan, 25-14, 25-19, 22-25, 25-13, behind 19 kills and 25 digs from Ashley Keck. Concordia hit .283 or better in each of the sets that it won.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s squad has been perfect on the road within GPAC play (4-0) and moved to 14-2 overall (7-1 GPAC). The Bulldogs took control of their latest match with a decisive first set.
“Again, we came out really focused and executed really well in that first set,” Boldt said. “I thought that we served well. We weren’t getting a lot of blocks, but we were digging the ball in system and we were able to kill the ball. It was great focus coming out of the gate. We sustained it into the second set and we couldn’t quite close it out in the third. Dakota Wesleyan made some plays and we had a couple errors. It was nice to see us turn it around in the fourth and really put them away. I thought we refocused and did a nice job.”
Not only did Keck clean up in the back row, so too did libero Becca Gebhardt, who piled up 32 digs in a starring effort that helped limit the Tigers to a .108 hitting percentage. The passing of Gebhardt helped set tee up four Bulldog attackers that reached double figures in kills: Keck (19), Gabi Nordaker (14), Ella Waters (11) and Ava Greene (10). The 10 kills were a career high for the Papillion, Neb., native Greene.
DWU (8-11, 3-5 GPAC), an NAIA national qualifier in 2021 and 2022, found some traction in the third set. A five-point run for the Tigers in that set helped spark them to a triumph that extended the match into a fourth. DWU was led by the 13 kills from Evy Knoblock. It managed only two service aces in the face of a strong defensive effort for Concordia.
Nordaker added four blocks to her stat line and the setter duo of Savannah Shelburne (32 assists) and Lily Psencik (23 assists) assisted on 55 of the team’s 64 kills (.261 hitting percentage). On the other side of the net, the Tigers posted only 32 kills. Shandy Fa’ali’i landed two of Concordia’s five aces (to go against eight team service errors). As part of the back row, Cassidy Knust added 13 digs.
This was the lengthiest road trip of the GPAC regular season for a Bulldog squad that traveled to Columbia, Mo., as part of nonconference action. Concordia passed the test and will now have nearly a week before its next outing.
Said Boldt, “The road trip was a long one. You play late on Friday and then midday the next day with travel in between. I was proud of our ability to focus for long periods of time. It was a grind, but that’s what this conference is.”
The Bulldogs will return to Friedrich Arena to host the GPAC’s Sioux City residents, Briar Cliff (6-14, 0-8 GPAC) and Morningside (17-6, 5-3 GPAC), the weekend of Oct. 11-12. Concordia will celebrate a class of six seniors on Saturday, Oct. 12. The Bulldogs own a home record of 5-1 this season.
