SEWARD, Neb. – For the second season in a row – and for the second time this calendar year – the Concordia University Volleyball team has earned a spot in the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Championship. The 19th-ranked Bulldogs emerged as the champion of NAIA Pool B thanks to wins in four sets over No. 25 Oregon Tech and in five sets over No. 2 Viterbo University (Wis.). Now Head Coach Ben Boldt’s squad gets set to take on No. 7 Marian University (Ind.).
View NAIA National Championship Bracket
NAIA National Quarterfinals
(19) Concordia (19-11) vs. (7) Marian (34-2)
Thursday, Dec. 2 | 5 p.m. CST
Tyson Events Center | Sioux City, Iowa (Court 2)
Webcast: NAIA Network
Live Stats: Presto Stats
Radio: 104.9 Max Country (Frank Greene)
Buy Tickets: TysonEventsCenter.com
Quick Notes
· In four all-time appearances at the national tournament, Concordia owns a record of 8-4. Below is a summary of each appearance. The Bulldogs are aiming for their first-ever journey to the national semifinals.
o 2021 – Quarterfinals (3-0)
o 2020 – Quarterfinals (3-1)
o 2019 – Round of 16 (2-2)
o 2015 – Opening Round (0-1)
· In Wednesday’s five-set win over No. 2 Viterbo, Camryn Opfer turned in a stat line of 21 kills (.514 hitting percentage), 16 digs and four blocks from the outside. Meanwhile, Carly Rodaway posted a career high 17 kills and Gabi Nordaker had 13 blocks.
· Concordia owns 2021 National Championship match highs for team kills (71 vs. Oregon Tech) and team assists (66 vs. Oregon Tech) and for individual blocks (13 by Nordaker).
· Concordia and Marian will meet at the national tournament for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs ousted the Knights from the 2020 event with a four-set victory in a pool play elimination match. Opfer struck for 19 kills and Nordaker contributed nine kills and seven blocks in the win. Marian won the 2019 NAIA national title.
· With 933 career kills, Opfer needs two more kills to move past Sandy Kirchner (934 kills) for 10th on the program’s all-time kills list. That list includes eight former Bulldogs who reached 1,000 or more kills.
· Marian wound up in a three-way tie in Pool G, which included Midland and Montana Tech. Those three squads competed in tiebreaker sets on Wednesday with the Knights emerging victorious. Marian suffered a loss to Montana Tech in pool play. It marked the first loss for the Knights since falling to Bethel College (Ind.) on Oct. 30.
· The other remaining teams are No. 1 Jamestown, No. 3 Missouri Baptist, No. 4 Park (Mo.), No. 5 Providence (Mont.), No. 11 Bellevue and No. 21 Northwestern. In sum, that makes three GPAC entrants into the national quarterfinals.
The Concordia-Marian winner will advance to play either Missouri Baptist or Northwestern in the national semifinals at 7:30 p.m. CT on Friday.