The Eagles registered a season-high 15.5 blocks
Box Score Irvine, CA - In a month that included fifteen matches in 28 days and seven of the past nine on the road, there's just something about being at home. Concordia gave the home crowd plenty to get excited about, taking advantage of a strong serving night, an even better blocking night and another lights-out performance by junior
Rachel Flynn, to close out a talented but road-weary Chaminade squad 3-1. With their 14th win of the season the Eagles have already matched their entire win total from 2015.
"The conference schedule can be very unforgiving and this team really showed some signs of maturity in how they handled the quick turnaournd for this match", commented Head Coach
Paula Weishoff.
"Chaminade is a very talented offensive team and we knew it was going to be really important to keep pressure on them with our serving game and be good defensively at the net. The team did a great job of staying on task and taking care of the game plan, and they brought a focused energy that was so important in setting the tone early in the match."
The Eagles broke away from a 6-6 tie in the first set with a four-point run featuring three of their season-high 15.5 blocks and a kill by junior
Amber Rose. Concordia would push another four-point run to extend the lead to 16-9 and then Flynn would take them home. The junior scored four of the Eagles next six points to help propel them to the 25-16 win.
The second set would see the home team setting the tone early with Flynn picking up where she left off. She would score four of her team's first seven points on 3 kills and a service ace to open up an early 7-3 lead. Rose and junior
Kyra Auten would dial in on the Chaminade attack from that point, combining for six blocks in the set, helping to hold the Silver Swords to a .000 hitting percentage. Rose added 3 kills on 4 swings and the Eagles didn't let Chaminade get any closer, gradually pulling away for the 25-17 win.
Concordia jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead in set three and for a moment it seemed like Chaminade would not be able to recover. But the Eagles couldn't find any separation and Chaminade's offense found it's groove behind big swings from sophomore Daisia LaBrie and Senior Kim Spring. The Silver Swords' top offensive threats combined for 12 of their team's 15 kills in the set and LaBrie added 3 consecutive blocks that pushed the visitors ahead at 17-16. Chaminade would not relinquish the lead, closing out the set 25-22 on a kill from Spring.
Set four could have gone either way but junior defensive specialist
Madeline Deters and senior libero,
Taylor Dennison combined for a 7-1 service run to start off the set, and Chaminade would not find an answer. Flynn continued her torrid pace with six of her match high 21 kills in the set and Auten and Rose would rebuild the wall with a combined five blocks to lock down the set and the match, 25-15.
Concordia (14-1 overall, 5-1 PacWest) will have one day to prepare for their next match, a Saturday afternoon affair at Azusa Pacific (6-8 overall, 2-3 PacWest). APU split their last two matches, beating Chaminade last night but falling to Hawaii Hilo tonight. First serve on Saturday is scheduled for 3:00pm.
