Concordia volleyball falls to No. 2 Northwestern

Shandy Fa’ali’i takes a swing against Briar Cliff (photo from previous game).

Photo: Keith Siek

By Ransom Watts

Concordia women’s volleyball suffered defeat at the hands of the second nationally ranked Northwestern Raiders. Despite aggression and focus on offense, the Bulldogs were outdone by mistakes in Saturday’s game against the Raiders in Orange City, Iowa.

As soon as the first set got underway, the Bulldogs fought to keep it as close a game as possible. It was a back-and-forth slugfest as these two teams traded blows with their aggressive offenses. The Raiders seemed to be pulling away towards the tail end of the first set when they achieved a 4-point lead on the Bulldogs. A kill, however, by senior Lanie Brott followed by a needed block from sophomore Laynee Baker kept the Bulldogs alive. 

After another back-and-forth action, Concordia got the score back within one point at 24-23, but Northwestern managed to end the first set before any more damage could be done.

Overall, in the first set the Bulldogs played well with a kill attempt percentage of .125. The Raiders, however, simply outdid the Bulldogs in terms of quantity and led 46-32 in attacking attempts and 15-11 in kills.

Concordia entered the second set hopeful to turn things around but instead continued to feel the pressure from Northwestern at the net. Halfway through the set, the Bulldogs were trailing by a slim margin when a quick succession of Raider kills and an unfortunate error suddenly had Concordia down 14-9. From then on, the Raiders managed to keep Concordia behind by five or more points until they ended the set 25-15

Despite leading Northwestern 31-28 in total attempts during the second set, the Raiders were simply able to poke holes in the Bulldogs’ defense, which saw them with an impressive .536 attacking percentage. The Bulldogs also let errors get the best of them in the second set and ended with five compared to only a single error by the opposition.

Going into the third set, Concordia regained its composure and managed to trail by a very small margin. The women kept it tied or within one point until the score was 22-21 in favor of Concordia. But three back-to-back scoring errors on behalf of the Bulldogs handed the victory to Northwestern.

Untimely errors such as these were responsible for dealing defeat to the Bulldogs. Concordia ended the third set with double the errors of the Raiders, who fell behind the Bulldogs in the kill category during the third set. The Bulldogs were simply unable to overcome the weakness inflicted by their errors in the final score.

The now 18-3 Bulldogs return home to Friedrich Arena on Oct. 14 to face the 11-19 Mount Marty Lancers to continue their busy Great Plains Athletic Conference schedule leading into the GPAC playoffs.