VB: Concordia upsets No. 9 Hastings, ends Broncos' streak

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The Concordia University, Nebraska volleyball team started the season with a bang, upsetting the ninth-ranked Hastings College Broncos, 3-1, on Wednesday night in Seward.

With the win the Bulldogs (1-0, 1-0 GPAC) put an end to the Broncos 24 match Great Plains Athletics Conference (GPAC) regular season win streak. It was nearly two years since the last time Hastings dropped a regular season conference match. Their previous defeat came on Oct. 7 2005 when Dordt got the better of the Broncos, 3-2.

The Bulldogs, playing in their season opener, jumped out to a two game lead (30-22, 30-22) in front of an electric crowd at the "Dog House" before dropping a tough game four 30-27. Concordia bounced back to take a close fourth game, 34-32.

Hastings entered the match a perfect 4-0 on the season with victories over a pair of ranked opponents, No. 10 Savannah College of Art & Design and No. 17 Bellevue University.

In the first set, Concordia hit a healthy .250 (11-3-32) en route to the eight point victory. In the third set the Bulldogs seemed to have taken a 28-26 lead, but after discussion among the officials and a delay of almost five minutes Concordia was called for being out of rotation. Hastings rallied, scoring the next three points to take the game.

For the match Concordia hit .178 while limiting Hastings to an attacking percentage of .108. Werner led the way for the Bulldogs hitting a red hot .433 with 16 kills and just three errors on 30 attempts. Junior Abby Schuldheisz (Portland, Ore.) added a game high five service aces in 22 attempts.

Sophomore Kelsey Affolter (Dickinson, Texas) was also in double figures in kills with 11. The Lincoln Lutheran duo of sophomore Kelli Ziegler and Lauryn Nyhoff had nine kills each while Ziegler added 25 assists and four blocks.

Finally, sophomore libero Jacki Chandler (Bellevue, Neb.) looked sharp, finishing with 19 digs while not committing an error on 40 serve receive attempts.

Kelsea Jones paced Hastings with 17 kills, one block and 11 digs. Jill Whalen was also in double digits in kills with 11.

The Bulldogs travel to Portland, Ore., to take part in the Cavalier Invitational Tournament hosted by Concordia Portland on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Along with the host school, the Bulldogs will take on Southern Oregon University, Lewis and Clark State College and Montana State University-Northern.

Posted by site staff on 8/30/2007 12:00:00 AM

VB: Concordia upsets No. 9 Hastings, ends Broncos' streak

VB: Concordia upsets No. 9 Hastings, ends Broncos' streak

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