‘Dogs follow Kavanaugh’s lead in pair of home routs

SEWARD, Neb. – For the bulk of Saturday’s pair of home matches, the Concordia University volleyball team operated with the beauty of a Beethoven symphony. Sophomore setter Alayna Kavanaugh played the role of maestro in directing an attack that hit .372 on the day to power a pair of impressive straight-sets victories. The Bulldogs defeated both Peru State College, 25-8, 25-14, 25-18, and Friends University, 25-17, 25-16, 25-16, as part of a tri-match inside Walz Arena.

Third-year head coach Scott Mattera’s Bulldogs bumped their records to 8-4 overall and 3-0 at home.

“To play six games at that high of a level and stay that consistent all the way through, I’m really happy,” Mattera said. “Friends and Peru are both a lot better than we let them look today. I’m really, really happy with these wins.”

As has often been the case this season, Concordia displayed its depth of attackers with 10 different players recording at least one kill in the first match and another eight hammering one kill or more in the afternoon affair. Kavanaugh put up 75 combined assists on the day. Junior Claire White was her most frequent target as the native of Exeter, Neb., went for match highs of 12 and nine kills, respectively.

In the middle, freshman Taylor Workman dominated with six kills on seven swings and then eight more kills on only 12 attempts. Mariah Schamp had similar success with 11 total kills on 19 attacks and six total blocks for the day. With seemingly endless threats coming off the bench, Kavanaugh had a field day.

“It’s awesome,” Kavanaugh said of the team’s dearth of talent and depth. “I know if the pass is off I can jack it back to the right side or I can always give to the outside. We’ve been working a lot on feeding it to the middles so that keeps us offensively strong.”

Concordia hit an unheard-of .667 in the very first set versus Peru State to set the tone for a dominant day. The Bulldogs did not commit a single attack error during the set in running away from the Bobcats, who never seriously threatened in any of the three games.

In a rematch of a battle that took place just a week earlier at the Hastings College Classic, Concordia again got the upperhand on Friends. Nearly the entire Bulldog team saw action once again. Led by Kavanaugh’s precise passing, Concordia hit .330 compared to .084 for the Falcons.

“We had a couple of out-of-system misses, but when we were in system we didn’t make a lot of mistakes today,” Mattera said. “We had solid play all the way around. Alayna played beautiful – 38 assists in three games (versus Friends) is a ridiculous number. Libby (Zagel) came in at the end and made a couple nice sets, too.”

Freshman Annie Friesen’s addition to the Bulldogs gives the team even more depth in the middle. Friesen had a career high seven kills (11 attempts) in the victory over Peru State. She was then a perfect 4-for-4 on the attack in the day’s final match.

A total of 17 different Bulldogs saw action in at least one of the six sets on Saturday.

Peru State is now 7-5 overall after a loss to Concordia and a win over Friends. The two Saturday losses dropped the Falcons to 8-9 overall.

One of the things Mattera liked the most about Saturday was how the team’s chemistry helped lift the Bulldogs back up after the loss to No. 9 Midland on Wednesday.

“We got down to just the basics of not thinking too much and stopped worrying about all the outside stuff,” Mattera said. “We wanted to get back to playing volleyball with the people we love and have fun doing it. It showed today.”

The Bulldogs get back to conference action on Wednesday when they play Doane College (7-9, 0-1 GPAC) in Crete for a junior varsity/varsity doubleheader at 6/7:30 p.m.