Concordia volleyball suffers second loss of the GPAC season
Concordia takes a timeout against College of Saint Mary (photo from previous game).
Photo: Kai Olbrich
By Ransom Watts
The No. 3 Concordia volleyball team suffered defeat at the hands of No. 16 Dordt University in a down-to-the-wire 3-2 loss at home on Saturday. Concordia got off to a good start in the match but succumbed to mistakes and a lack of confidence in the latter two sets.
From the beginning of the first set, the Bulldogs played with cohesion and quickly got away to a comfortable lead which they were able to maintain and increase. The power of the Bulldog hitters was on full display during the first set as they forced attack errors and racked up points, winning 25-20.
Into the second set, the Defenders kept pace with the Bulldogs from the start and were eventually able to pull away by a few points as the set wore on. Overall, the Bulldogs did not play with the same level of dominance they showed in the first set, dropping their attacking percentage from .257 to .161. On the other hand, the Defenders nearly doubled their percentage from .79 to .156 and were able to contain the power of Concordia’s hitters better to keep the ball in play and win some much-needed volleys.
Towards the end of the set, the Defenders broke away from the Bulldogs, who, after taking a timeout, could not catch back up and lost the set 25-22.
After a disappointing second set, the Bulldogs came back and played their best set of the game, putting up a .464 attack percentage with 15 kills on 28 attempts and only two errors. Throughout the set, the Bulldogs played with less confusion and more cohesion, and allowed for less costly mistakes, including fewer net violations that put them at a disadvantage in the previous set. Overall, blocking was cleaner in the third set as well.
Coming out of a 25-16 victory in set three, the Bulldogs were shut down by the Defenders at the start of the fourth set and fell behind by nine points before they were able to score. The Bulldogs were able to pick their way back within seven points. They clearly regained confidence as they started to rely on more of Fa’ali’i, freshman Samantha Kimbell, and other heavy hitters to hammer away at the Defenders. Despite the resurgence which brought the Bulldogs within three points of Dordt, the women could not overcome the early deficit and lost the set 22-25.
Despite the improvements made in the fourth set in curbing defensive mistakes and communication, the confidence of the Bulldogs was shaken once again by another early jump by the Defenders. With only three successful attacks on 20 attempts, a distinct lack of power behind hits was evident in the fifth set, and the Defenders increased the gap on the Bulldogs until they came away victorious 15-9.
Coach Benjamin Boldt noted such a lack of communication as a possible reason for Saturday’s shortcomings.
“Yeah, we needed to be more aggressive in the big moments and work on our communication when things weren’t really going great.”
He also noted a lack of aggression that led to several missed opportunities.
“We gotta be sharp,” he said. “We gotta be sharp, and we gotta be clean when we’re making decisions on our attack.”
Despite not getting the results the Bulldogs wanted, Boldt was still encouraged by some things he saw.
“We battled back when we were down,” he said. “I thought that was really good.”
Luckily for the Bulldogs, there’s not too much time to dwell on what could have been in Saturday’s game. In another quick turnaround, Concordia will face Doane University in Friedrich Arena on Tuesday in the final game before the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championship quarterfinals.
