Volleyball team defeats the Flames in four-set match Wednesday night

Junior outside hitter Ashley Keck (No. 6) spikes the ball over the net.

Photo credit: Cohen Carpenter

By Cohen Carpenter

Concordia extinguished the Flames Wednesday night as the No. 3 team in the nation took three of four sets versus the College of Saint Mary, 25-19, 16-25, 25-14, 25,19, to remain undefeated in conference play and extend their winning streak to five games.

The lone snafu of the night came in the second set where the Bulldogs saw a 300-point drop in their hitting percentage from their first set (.464) to the subsequent set (.143). After Concordia tied the Flames 12-12, Saint Mary sparked and proceeded to score the next 10 points unanswered, a stretch that was replete with three attacking errors by the Bulldogs and two Flames aces.

The Bulldogs had a similar hiccup a week ago when Mount Marty was able to avoid the sweep, winning a single set where Concordia had an uncharacteristically low hitting percentage, something head coach Ben Boldt was well aware of:

“[After the second set] we talked about coming back to our fundamentals and doing those at a high level,” Boldt said after the game. “We switched up some things when we couldn’t get a side out there in the second set, but College of Saint Mary is a tough team, and we had a tough time siding out. But we stayed true to ourselves, we trusted our training and we went back out there and competed.”

Concordia bounced back to seal the deal as the Great Plains Athletic Conference leaders in hitting percentage wrapped the game up in the fourth, with a game-high 14 kills on a .242 hitting percentage.

Perhaps the highlight of the night however came virtue of one of the Concordia mainstays, senior Gabi Nordaker. The Omaha native, who is already sixth all-time on Concordia’s all-time kills leader (1,244), became just the third Bulldog ever to surpass 500 career blocks (503) with nine denials Wednesday night. Nordaker also joins a short list of Seward legends as only the third player in program history with more than 1,200 kills and 500 blocks, trailing just Katie Werner (1,600, 787) and Rachel Kirchner (1,315, 760).

“Gabi has always been a student of the game,” said Boldt about Nordaker’s milestone. “She can put herself in the right place at the right time. It is just a testament to her consistency day in and day out. I am really proud of her for accomplishing that.”

As her achievement might suggest, Nordaker led the way for the front line with nine blocks, but it truly was a team effort Wednesday night as the Bulldogs owned the net, outblocking the Flames 20 to 12. Sophomore Ella Waters contributed 13 kills and five blocks up front while juniors Kya Scott and Addie Kirkegaard combined for four blocks and 12 kills.

“I’ve been really happy with our intention in blocking,” said Boldt about his front line’s performance. “We have a lot of purpose with our hands over the net. We have a saying that we want to ‘own the net’ and I think we did that tonight.”

Owning the net is a lot easier when the front line has confidence in the back court behind them and having confidence is a lot easier when the back court is as stout as Concordia’s. The group has the third fewest reception errors in the GPAC and had another smooth performance Wednesday night led by some familiar faces.

Senior Rebecca Gebhardt led the way with 20 digs on only two reception errors followed closely by junior Savannah Shelburne who boasted 13 digs without a reception error to her name along with 21 assists. Also flawless in terms of errors was junior Ashley Keck who led the team with 15 kills while also boasting 12 digs and a block. Junior Lily Psenick again was right behind Sheburne in assists, contributing 20.

Now in the weeds of conference play, the Bulldogs have their sights set on yet another ranked opponent, No. 20 Midland who come to town this weekend. The matchup represents a rematch of last year’s National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics pool play contest between the Warriors in which Midland upset the Bulldogs and knocked them from the playoffs altogether.

“We’re going to have to bring our best game, night in and night out,” said Boldt, “Concordia and Midland is always a big match so we’re looking forward to the competition and we’ve got to come ready to go.”

The Parents’ Weekend showdown versus Midland will commence at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Friedrich Arena.