SEWARD, Neb. – After being pushed a week earlier in the season opener, the fourth-ranked Concordia University Volleyball team breezed to victory on Friday (Aug. 25) at the eighth all-time Bulldog Bash. The Bulldogs set the tone by rattling off the first nine points of the match and never looked back in a 25-7, 25-6, 25-7, rout of visiting Langston University (Okla.). Concordia hit a scorching .581 while finishing off the Lions in a mere 55 minutes.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s squad has moved to 2-0 halfway through the Bulldog Bash. The victory in the season opener came in four sets over McPherson College (Kan.) on Aug. 19.
“Rhythm in our offense is something we’ve been talking about a lot,” Boldt said. “I think our setting to our outside hitters worked well and our block was pretty clean. Those are two good takeaways.”
Returning All-American Gabi Nordaker smoldered in the middle on an evening when Langston had few answers. Nordaker went a perfect 7-for-7 on the attack in the first set and finished with 10 kills on 12 swings. Last year’s GPAC Freshman of the Year, Ashley Keck, equaled Nordaker with 10 kills, also on 12 attempts. As part of the 9-0 run out of the gates, Lexie Kreizel remained stationed at the service line and landed two of her four aces during the opening onslaught.
Beyond Nordaker and Keck, Concordia shared the sugar as 17 Bulldogs saw action and 11 of them registered at least one kill. The likes of Addie Kirkegaard and Sara Huss were active on the block with three assisted blocks apiece. At setter, Bree Burtwistle (19 assists) and Savannah Shelburne (six assists) collaborated on a fruitful attacking night. All-American outside hitter Camryn Opfer contributed four kills and seven digs before taking the third set off. Libero Becca Gebhardt paced the back row with nine digs.
The team statistics tell a story of domination. The Bulldogs owned significant advantages in hitting percentage, .581 to -.106, kills, 40-10, aces, 9-0, digs, 34-18, and blocks, 6-0. By set, Nordaker and company hit .565, .545 and .647, respectively. If there was anything to nitpick about, it was that Concordia had six service errors. On the flip side, the Bulldogs successfully handled every serve they faced from the Lions.
The visitors traveled from Langston, Okla., to take on three nationally ranked foes this weekend at the Bulldog Bash. Langston (1-2) got three kills apiece from Alycia Shaw and Braelyn Spence. The Lions picked up a win this past Tuesday over Wiley College.
A stiffer challenge awaits Concordia on Saturday. For the first time on the young season, the Bulldogs will test themselves against a ranked foe.
Said Boldt, “We’ve got a good matchup tomorrow versus MidAmerica. We want to stay in a good rhythm and control the net. We don’t want balls hitting our hands on the block and having them get kills off of that. We want to have that mentality.”
Day two of the Bulldog Bash will feature Concordia versus No. 11 MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.) (0-2). That match will get started at 4 p.m. CT from Friedrich Arena. On day one of the event, the Pioneers were defeated in straight sets by No. 5 Northwestern. Langston will be back on the court to take on MidAmerica Nazarene at 11 a.m. and Northwestern at 1:30 p.m.