#4 Ranked Concordia-St. Paul Sweeps UMC Volleyball

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Volleyball team had a great star and won the first set, but the #4 ranked Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears won the next three sets for a 3-0 (19-25, 25-15, 25-12, 25-11) Northern Sun Conference victory in a match played at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston.
The first set was tied at 2, 3, 4, and 5 before UMC went on a 10-1 run for a 15-6 lead. The run was fueled by three Porsha Porath (Fresh. Windom) with three kills. UMC held on the rest of the way for a 25-19 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the match. “I love the way our team came out. We came out aggressively,” said UMC Coach Sarah Rauen. “We put in a good week of practice and played well last night. We are really good when we have a plan and like to stick to it and we did that in the first set.”
Concordia-St. Paul jumped out to a 7-2 lead to start the second set and UMC battled back with five straight points to tie the set at 7-7. In the run, UMC had a kill, an ace and the Golden Bears had three attack errors. Concordia-St. Paul settled in and went on an 18-8 run the rest of the way for a 25-15 victory to tie the match at 1-1.
The third set was similar to the second when Concordia-St. Paul started with a 4-1 lead before UMC battled back to tie the game at 6-6 with some kills, a CSP service error. The Golden Bears dominated play the rest of the way and finished the set on a 19-6 run for a 25-12 victory for a 2-1 lead. “They are a good team and they kind of flipped the script on us,” said Coach Rauen. “They didn’t give us any free points and we gave them a few free points.”
In the fourth set, Concordia-St. Paul jumped out to a 5-0 lead with two service aces and they cruised the rest of the way for a 25-11 victory to win the match 3-1. “We talked about how we are a lot better than we were at the start of the season,” said Coach Rauen. “We are going to keep working hard and we will be exponentially better at the end of the season than we are now.”
UMC drops to 4-17 on the year and 2-11 in the NSIC and will travel to Winona State on Friday. Concordia-St. Paul improves to 18-4 overall and 12-1 in the NSIC.

Kaitlin Sikkink and Porsha Porath go for a block in the fourth set

Deaira Gresham with an attack past two Golden Bear blockers

For UMC
Kills – Porsha Porath – 11, Deaira Gresham – 7
Blocks – Sydney Kruisselbrink – 1
Assists – Sydney Kruisselbrink – 23
Digs – Deaira Gresham – 7, Katie Lienemann – 7
Aces – Katie Lienemann – 2, Lauren Ulibarri – 2

Porsha Porath eyes down the ball on an attack