SEWARD, Neb. – As the dust settled on a weekend of action at the Bulldog Bash, the fourth-ranked Concordia University Volleyball team celebrated a second home victory over a nonconference foe in two days. The Bulldogs used a .301 hitting percentage to turn away Oklahoma City University, 25-18, 25-19, 25-20, on Saturday (Aug. 17) afternoon. Both Ella Waters and Ashley Keck reached double figures in kills and Concordia showed improvement in its blocking compared to the previous day.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s squad also defeated Lewis-Clark State College (Idaho) in straight sets on Friday.
“I thought we played cleaner than we did yesterday defensively,” Boldt said. “I thought our block setup was good and we had a lot better block touches today. I thought Ella had a good bounce-back in terms of attacking and being aggressive. We found a little bit of a rhythm with Addie Kirkegaard and Lily Psencik. She (Addie) started really ripping the ball.”
In an overall sharper performance, the Bulldogs never felt seriously threatened down the stretch of any set on Saturday. Concordia raced out to leads of 17-8 in the first set, 22-15 in the second and 17-8 in the third. The Stars did manage to put together a late 7-1 run in the final set before Kirkegaard snuffed out any chance for a comeback with a match-point kill. The result left Oklahoma City at 0-3 on its Seward road trip.
A day after mustering only two blocks, Concordia ramped its tally up to eight in the latest victory. Waters and Molli Martin both contributed to four blocks as the ringleaders in that category. Their play at the net helped limit the Stars to 30 kills and an .092 hitting percentage for the afternoon. As part of the defensive effort, libero Becca Gebhardt posted a match high 16 digs.
Savannah Shelburne started at setter for the second-straight day and came away with 21 assists and 10 digs. Psencik added 15 assists while working in tandem with Shelburne. They helped facilitate the 11 kills totaled by Waters (.308) and the 10 kills put away by Keck (.400). Meanwhile, Martin and Kya Scott supplied seven kills apiece and Kirkegaard notched five kills. Ashlyn Wischmeier dropped in two aces.
The Kearney, Neb., native Keck hit a cool .450 (22 kills) from the outside for the weekend. Said Keck, “It’s really fun. It’s nice to have the two-setter connection because we can really run a wide offense and get swings out of everyone. We’re all going through a transition with how our team looks, but I think the connections we’ve built has really gotten us far and allowed us to be successful together.”
OCU was defeated by two other GPAC squads inside Friedrich Arena, Hastings and College of Saint Mary. The Stars got a team high eight kills apiece from Grace Smallwood and Rylee Steward while up against the Bulldogs. Steward was also credited with four block assists.
It will be no easy task for any foe attempting to knock off Concordia in its home gym. The weekend indicated that the Bulldogs have the potential to put together another special season.
Said Boldt, “We’re very lucky to be able to coach this group. They listen, they care for each other and they’re talented. Our motto this year is ‘grit.’ There’s going to be adversity that comes. Grit comes from overcoming that stuff. We’re going to face those moments this year. We had a run against us at the end there. We ask them to be gritty in those moments, and they responded well.”
The nonconference slate will resume next weekend (Aug. 23-24) when the Bulldogs will take part in the Columbia College Power Quad. The opponents in Columbia, Mo., will be No. 7 Columbia, No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan University and MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.), in that order. Frank Greene will be live from Columbia to call the action for 104.9 Max Country.
@scott_kya #RTB x2 on the weekend for @cunevolleyball! pic.twitter.com/Lx885FkRQj
— Concordia Bulldogs (@cunebulldogs) August 17, 2024