SIOUX CITY, Iowa – While making the first national semifinal appearance in program history, Concordia University, Nebraska Volleyball let it rip in the opening set. However, GPAC rival and second-ranked Northwestern turned the tables late in the first set and rode that tidal wave to victory, 25-23, 25-13, 25-9, ending the journey for the third-ranked Bulldogs on Monday (Dec. 8) night. Concordia wound up with negative hitting percentages in the second and third sets in action that took place inside the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s program has reached at least the national quarterfinal round in four of the past six seasons. Concordia finished 2025 at 28-4 overall.
“We came out and were executing our game plan,” Boldt said. “We hit a point there where it was tough to get kills. We tried to make some adjustments. If you’re going to win national championships, you have to execute. Credit to Northwestern on that. They made some adjustments with their block that really had us trying to find kills. I thought we stuck together through it.”
The majority of the first set went about as the Bulldogs would have scripted it. Northwestern called the match’s first two timeouts with the Bulldogs owning leads of 13-9 and 17-11. The Concordia advantage hung steady at 19-13 before the Red Raiders rattled off seven of the next eight points to pull even. GPAC Player of the Year Stella Winterfield rose up to put away the 24th and 25th points for Northwestern.
Once the momentum shifted, the Bulldogs never swung it back on their side. The Red Raiders looked like a team on a mission in rolling through the second and third sets with respective hitting percentages of .324 and .348. On the other side of the net, Concordia hit only .051 for the night. Northwestern finished with a kills advantage of 41-31 and ruled the block, 9-5.
The statistical leaders for the Bulldogs by category were Ashley Keck in kills (13), Keck and Emma Brueggemann in digs (nine), Savannah Shelburne in assists (15) and Ella Waters in blocks (three). Concordia was held without a service ace (compared to five for Northwestern).
The GPAC champion Red Raiders (33-3) have cruised in straight sets in each of their first five national tournament matches. Winterfeld finished with 14 kills while All-American middle blocker Zavyr Metzger got in on six blocks. Maggie Bloom paced the back row with 13 digs. Northwestern toppled the Bulldogs in all three of this season’s meetings and pushed its overall win streak to 22.
In addition to becoming the first national semifinalist in program history, the 2025 edition of Concordia Volleyball racked up the most wins for a Bulldog team since 1996. The ’25 Bulldogs placed second in the GPAC in the regular season and in the tournament. As for Boldt, he’s now the winningest coach in program history with 182 victories over his eight seasons.
If that was it for the All-American Keck, it’s been quite a run. She tallied 1,460 kills and 1,266 digs over the past four seasons and is a likely NAIA National Championship All-Tournament team selection for a second year in a row. Keck and her senior classmates have combined to go 105-18 since the start of the 2022 season. The senior class numbers 10 strong.
When emerging from the locker room after Monday’s loss, the Bulldogs were still wearing their game jerseys. They didn’t want the ride to end. The memories will carry on for years to come.
Said Boldt, “One of our goals is at that end – not wanting to take our jerseys off. That’s something that’s awesome to see. What we did, we did it together through the great times, which we had them, and through the tough times, which we had them. We chose each other. You can’t ask for anything more. I’m really proud of the work we put into building a team.”
The national tournament path to the semifinals for Concordia included wins over Florida National University (opening round), No. 22 Dakota Wesleyan (pool play), No. 14 The Master’s University (pool play) and No. 6 University of Providence (quarterfinals). After the quarterfinal win, Boldt was showered with water in a joy-filled postgame locker room. As Keck mentioned after that victory, she and her teammates won’t let that joy leave them, win or lose.
Said Boldt in providing some closing thoughts, “I don’t think winning a quarterfinal or getting to the final four makes you a different person or makes you a different team necessarily. I don’t feel any different with what this team was doing than the first team we had here at Concordia. I still feel that same competitive spirit to accomplish things. We’re still in our process as a team and continuing to build as a program. I’m really proud of where we’re at as a team, how they’ve come together and who they are as people.”