Thursday, November 19
7:30 p.m. - Gangelhoff Center - St. Paul, Minn.
No. 1 seed #1 Concordia University (32-0) vs. No. 8 seed Colorado Mines (22-10)
BOX SCORE - PHOTOS - CU PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO - COLO. MINES PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO
RECAP: ST. PAUL, Minn. - Top seeded and #1-ranked Concordia University (32-0) powered its way past no. 8 seed Colorado Mines (22-10) in the quarterfinals of the Central Region Tournament, hitting .340 with 45 kills in a 3-0 sweep (25-14, 25-10, 25-20). The Golden Bears advance to Friday's semifinal match against #17 Wayne State College, the tourney's no. 4 seed, played at the Gangelhoff Center at 8:30 pm. The Golden Bears have now won 69 consecutive matches, an all-time best for Division II play.
The Golden Bears sped out to a quick 2-0 lead as the Orediggers, seeing a rare regional opponent, took awhile to adjust to the environment. CU had 14 kills in each of the first two sets and swung for .500 in the second set while going without a receiving error. Staying in-system allowed the offense to thrive and allowed CU's offense to perform at a peak.
After a second set blowout that featured a 12-0 run with Krista Erickson behind the line, the Orediggers made a match out of the third set. A kill by senior Kaity Edmiston put CSM within reach at 10-12. The score never reached more than a 5-point margin throughout the set. The Golden Bears made a number of costly hitting mistakes that delayed the win, but their victory still came at a 25-20 score.
The Golden Bear offense looks like it is already gearing up for the future, allowing newcomers to take the reigns in kills. Sophomore outside hitter Megan Carlson (Andover, Minn. / Marshall Univ.) jumped out with a hot start, putting down seven of the team's 14 first-set kills.
Carlson led the squad with 14 kills and 12 digs on the night, her 17th double-double of the year. She also had her hand in three of the team's six blocks. Freshman Cassie Haag (MH, Plymouth, Minn.) followed with 10 kills. Taylor Fieldsted (So., Lakeville, Minn.) followed Carlson on defense with 10 digs. Senior setter Maggie McNamara (Zumbrota, Minn.) had 35 assists, two service aces and five digs on the night.
The Colorado Mines offense was led by Anna Padget-Shields with seven kills. Setter Emily Collett came away with 26 assist and four digs. The Orediggers hit .108 with 29 kills. They stuck it out defensively, coming up with 36 digs, including 11 from Alese Madenwald.
Concordia University Match Notes: This is the seventh consecutive appearance for the No. 1 Concordia University Golden Bears in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Brady Starkey ... The Golden Bears are the two-time defending Division II National Champions ... CU finished the season with a 20-0 NSIC record, claiming its seventh straight NSIC title ... The Golden Bears have won 52 consecutive NSIC games ... Brady Starkey holds a 118-2 record in NSIC games ... The Golden Bears have won 68 straight matches ... Maggie McNamara holds the NCAA Division II record with 7,103 career assists ... Sadie Kessler has recorded 1,024 kills in her career at CU ... Mary Slinger owns the most digs in school history with 2,257 ... The Golden Bears have won four Central Region Titles in six years ... Concordia University currently holds a 13 game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament.
Colorado Mines Match Notes: No. 8 seed Colorado Mines finished in a tie for third overall in the East Division of the RMAC ... The Orediggers dropped a the semifinal match of the RMAC tournament at the hands of Nebraska Kearney ... The Orediggers established a new single-season program record with 22 victories and 13 conference victories this season ... Elizabeth Serra-Hsu is in the record books with 96 career service aces ... Serra-Hsu ranks first in the RMAC with 43 service aces.
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY STATE QUOTES:
Head Coach Brady Starkey
Opening Statement: "First of all I would like to congratulate Colorado School of Mines for making it to the regions and coming down here to compete. They are a tough team, and I have a feeling they will be back again real soon. I am proud of our girls, I thought we did a good job handling the ball, controlling the ball and playing great defense tonight. Our defense sure helped beef up our offense."
On the play of Colorado Mines in the third set: "They stepped up, one thing that happens to teams when they play here is the fact that they have never played in our gym. Its a different atmosphere then what most teams are use to. It is definitely a home court advantage for us, which helps us get up early, and we can usually get up on teams by two sets. I think what happened in the third set was that Colorado Mines got comfortable and stepped up and played an excellent third set. I don't really feel like we were letting down, I think we were really focused and playing well I just think that the other team stepped up and played really well."
On tomorrow's opponent Wayne State: "I anticipate them to play great defense they play really well, when we've played them in the past we've had some really long rally's against them. We just have to stick to our game plan and keep attacking. I expect them to block a lot of balls and dig a lot of balls but we just have to keep on fighting through that. Wayne always plays us tough, they fight til' the end.
Sophomore outside hitter Megan Carlson
On what CU did well tonight: “We played great defense, and because our defense was so good tonight I knew I could go up there and swing anywhere at everything and see where it goes. I had great defense behind me along with great blocking so I wasn't nervous to go up there swinging."
Senior rightside hitter Sadie Kessler
On post-season play: “It was an awesome experience, there was a lot of energy, new energy in the building.
COLORADO MINES QUOTES:
Head Coach Jamie Skadeland:
Opening Statement: "This was a great experience for us. I thought that we had a good appearance because we are not use to playing at this level of competition. This was our first time being exposed to the NSIC and I think it will end up being a great experience for this young team. It was a good thing playing against the Northern Sun to show our team what the Northern Sun and this region are all about. We have eight young freshman and I think it opened their eyes into what all of our hard work is going into. Playing in this region gave us the opportunity to expose our freshman to new things and give them something to shoot for in the future."
On third set and not giving up: "One of the biggest things we changed, we made a big lineup change, a group that we had never used together in the past and it was good to see some of our upperclassmen to show up and make some big plays for us. We gained some momentum but we still had a few errors that cost us some big points."
Junior setter Emily Collett:
On what she saw on the court tonight: "Coming in we had a pretty good game plan on what we were going to do. We understood that Concordia is a top team and have beat a lot of good teams. All we could do was try to control our side of the court. We followed our game plan and got some points."
On trip through the RMAC tournament: "We had a big win against Colorado, they beat us a few times this season but we were able to bounce back and beat them in three sets which was a huge win for us. They we got to play Kearney again and put up a big fight. It was really exciting to find out we made the regional tournament because we thought that our season was over. We were given a second chance to show what Mines volleyball is all about."
Senior middle blocker Kaity Edmiston:
On third set and not giving up: "Mines volleyball is always fighting. I feel as our team chemistry has come together we all believed that we are able to do things. We've never been here, it was just an experience being at regional's and being able to put up a fight it made it even better. I hope that next years team will take this experience with them and use it to help them in the future."
On trip through the RMAC tournament: "For our team its always been about second and third chances. Everybody worked hard this year and we finally got some national attention. Our team just worked together and we were able to beat some good teams which really helped us in the long run."
On playing in the Gangelhoff Center against the No. 1 team in the nation: "Personally it was an awesome experience that I will never forget. Getting to play against the best team in the nation is something special. Not everybody can say that they were able to do that. And getting to come and see what the other side of the region is all about is something our team needed to see. It gave us something to look forward to, things that we weren't able to see in the regular season."
