Eagles take care of Notre Dame in three set sweep
Despite delivering Cal Baptist its first loss of the season, Notre Dame De Namur couldn't handle the powerful Eagle attackers.
Christopher Duenow - Women's Volleyball Assistant Coach
Box Score When you host a team the night after they upset the top team in the conference, anything can happen. The visiting Argonauts, fresh off a mammoth upset of first place Cal Baptist, tried to dial up some of that "anything." When the whistle blew, the Eagles made sure that the only thing happening was a workman-like 3-set win. The Eagles made quick work of Notre Dame de Namur during the first match of their two-match home stand (25-13, 25-21, 25-21).
The first set, as one might expect, was about who would exert their will and establish the energy level in the gym. NDNU came out with a blast of energy, getting kills from four different players in the first six points. Concordia would match them point-for-point eventually knotting the score at 7-7. Then it was the Eagle's turn, they proceeded to rattle off 18 of the next 24 point (hitting a blistering .519 in the process), squashing any ideas the Argonauts might have with a 12-point margin of victory.
"We knew it was going to be important for us to come out strong against them after the big win they got last night", Head Coach
Paula Weishoff said.
"It was great to see our group focused and on task and ready to handle the initial push that we knew NDNU would have for us."
Notre Dame would not go away quietly. The visitors kept things close throughout the second set, eventually overcoming an early 4-point eagle lead to narrow the margin to one at 19-20. But the Eagles steadied the ship and closed out the set with a 5-2 run on the strength of three kills and a block. Through two sets, the Eagles had eleven more kills than the Argonauts and out blocked them 8-1.
"
Our defensive effort, both at the net and in the back row, was one of our best of the season," Weishoff added.
"We have been putting a lot of emphasis on our floor defense the past couple weeks and it was nice to see some of it start translating into competition. We need to make more plays in that aspect of the game and I thought we started to become that team tonight."
Setters
Morgan Nunley and
Logan Grove continued to spread the wealth in set three and their hitters rewarded them, collectively matching their season high single-set kill total with 18 enroute to a similar 25-21 decision.
"
Mo and Lo did a really nice job of implementing the game plan and getting all of our hitters involved tonight", Weishoff said.
"We've been working hard on improving our distribution and tactical decisions with our setters and they were really on point tonight."
Concordia finished the night with an advantage in every statistical category: Kills (47-30), Blocks (9-3), Digs (56-50), and Aces (3-2). The Eagles were led by
Hannah Andrews (14 kills, 5 digs, 1 Block),
Rachel Flynn (13 kills, 7 digs, 3 blocks) and
Ellie Ladensack (11kills, 3digs, 1 block).
Maddy Deters collected 14 digs and
Kyra Auten stuffed seven blocks, setting the the tone for the Concordia defense.
Concordia (16-1 overall, 7-1 PacWest) is back in action on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the CU Arena against Cal Baptist (11-4 overall, 6-1 PacWest).
