Concordia volleyball makes a statement against the nation’s No. 1

Senior defensive specialist Rebecca Gebhardt comes back down after jumping up to hit the ball across the net (photo from 2024 season).

Photo credit: Cohen Carpenter

By Kai Olbrich

Sports Editor

The Concordia University volleyball team made a statement on Aug. 22 as they defeated the country’s No. 1, Indiana Wesleyan, in a back-and-forth five-set game.

It was a night where neither team was proficient on the hitting side of things, with the Bulldogs hitting .125 and Indiana Wesleyan hitting .039. But after going down 2-1 in the first two sets, the Bulldogs responded by hitting .295 in a dominant 25-17 fourth set.

Despite the ranking of the opponent, Bulldog coach Ben Boldt believes that his team can hang with the very best.
“We know that we can compete with the best teams in the nation. It’s always our expectation that we do our best no matter who is on the other side of the net,” Boldt said.

Part of the success for the Bulldogs was their blocking game. As a team, Concordia totalled six solo blocks and 32 block assists. Senior Molli Martin was a big part of that with three solos and seven assists. She credits their success in that area to the pre-point communication.

“As a team, we had a great blocking game,” Martin said. “I think this is one of the reasons why we were able to beat them. At the net, before the point had started, we were talking about where the hitters were. We would also talk about how we want to get this next block. We just tried to play free.”

Blocks earned four points for the Bulldogs and helped hold Indiana Wesleyan to -.154 hitting in a runaway fifth set. Concordia took a 9-4 lead and held the margin on the way to a 15-10 final.

Junior middle Maddie Paulsen doesn’t see the group as just a team, but as a family who always has each other’s backs.

“We have this thing we always remind ourselves,” Paulsen said. “We can play as a team, but how can we play as a family? You know, a big thing with families is that you love each other, you trust each other no matter what. I think that’s one thing we try to specialize in, and you can kind of see it in every game we have, because we know everyone has our backs, so if we make an error, if we get blocked or something, we know, like, hey, I have my teammates around me.”

Martin echoed the sentiment and believes that the win is a good sign of things to come.

“I think that this win shows everyone else that we can win a national championship. We as a team already knew that we could, but others doubted us,” Martin said. “This win doesn’t mean that we will automatically win a national championship, so we will continue to work hard during practice and not let anything dip. We have focused recently on being a better family, so we want to be the best family in the nation, no matter whether we win or we lose.”

The Bulldogs begin their Great Plains Athletic Conference schedule on Sept. 6 when they travel to Mount Marty University.