Box Score San Francisco, CA - Match two of Concordia's three-match conference road trip took the Eagles into the Haight Ashbury District to face the Urban Knights of the Academy of Art. Though the Knights would keep things interesting in each of the first two sets, the magic from their 5-set win last night over Azusa Pacific would not be relived tonight, as the Eagles closed out the home team in a straight-set win. Set scores were 25-22, 25-21 and 25-14.
Set one would stay close until 13-11 when the visiting Eagles' went on a 6-point run fueled by 3 kills from
Rachel Flynn and 2 aces by
Ellie Ladensack. The Knights' Bailey Soolsma and Ema Causevic would lead a late charge to close the gap and save six-consecutive set-points, but
Hannah Andrews would close the set with a kill for the 25-22 win.
The second set was much more of a back-and-forth affair as Art took the early lead, moving out to a 4-point margin at 12-8. Concordia would answer back with a 5-point run of its own, jump-started by 2 kills from freshman
Cindy Tran and a Flynn ace, and gradually pulled away for the final 25-21 margin.
The Eagles sealed the deal in the third set, taking advantage of some timely serving and a workman-like effort at the net to jump out to 6-0 and 10-1 leads. Concordia would not let the Knights get any closer, gradually extending the lead to the final 11-point margin. Four different hitters contributed to the 14-kill offensive outburst, complementing a strong blocking effort that held Art to -.029% for the set.
"We have talked all season about the importance of sustaining our level of play, being patient, and finding our own rhythm as the match progresses", commented Head Coach
Paula Weishoff.
"I thought the team did a really nice job showing some persistence and determination while they figured out some things Art was doing that we hadn't see from an opponent this season. Our serving game was really on-point tonight and that helped us keep them off-balance a bit until we were able to get our offense and blocking on-track. It was an important win for us against a team that was coming in with a lot of confidence from their success last night."
CUI was led, once again, by senior
Rachel Flynn who added another double-double to her season totals with 16 kills and 11 digs. Flynn also led the team in hitting percentage at .467. The Eagles' defense was spearheaded by junior
Amber Rose who put the clamps on the Knights' hitters with a season-high 9 blocks. Rose was joined in the block party by Ladensack and junior
Kyra Auten who both had 5 blocks and Tran who locked down 4 on the night. Senior Libero
Taylor Dennison patrolled the backrow with a match-leading 15 digs.
Concordia (12-1 overall, 3-1 PacWest) will take Sunday off before heading to Oakland to play Holy Names (1-11 overall, 0-4 PacWest) on Monday in their final match of the five day road trip. Match time vs HNU is set for 7pm.
