SEWARD, Neb. – The stage was set and the fans were clad in white as Friedrich Arena welcomed its largest crowd so far this 2025 season. However, the second-ranked Bulldogs were off their game from a serve and pass perspective, and arch nemesis and seventh-ranked Northwestern seized the moment. The result was a 25-9, 16-25, 25-14, 25-21, victory late on Friday (Oct. 10) for the visitors from Orange City, Iowa. Red Raider star outside hitter Stella Winterfeld returned to the court and put away a match-high 22 kills.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s program had won 18-straight GPAC regular season matches before being tripped up on Friday. The Concordia University, Nebraska Volleyball team (15-2, 8-1 GPAC) falls one game behind Northwestern (17-3, 9-0 GPAC) atop the league standings.
“Credit to Northwestern. They really put pressure on us,” Boldt said. “It was mostly serve and pass. We couldn’t necessarily find a rhythm tonight with passing the ball in system. That was probably the biggest thing. They have a big block, but when we’re in system and flying around, we were putting the ball away. The serve and pass game went their way. Credit to them.”
The most positive takeaway for the Bulldogs was the way they responded to a rough first set that saw themselves outhit, .462 to -.067. It was a stunningly dominant opening act for the Red Raiders, who did not commit a single attack error in the first set. Concordia steadied itself, jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the second set and then rode the hot hand of Kya Scott, who killed point Nos. 17, 18, 23 and 25 while knotting up the match.
But Northwestern simply played much cleaner as evidenced by its 54 kills (18 errors) to 41 kills (23 errors) for the Bulldogs and overall advantage in hitting percentage, .250 to .122. The serve of the Red Raiders frequently gave Concordia fits as the likes of Maggie Bloom and Nyah Potthoff sprayed bullets across the net. Sidelined since Sept. 17, Winterfeld re-emerged in a big way as she hit .319 and added 11 digs to her stat line. All-American middle Zavyr Metger contributed to five of her side’s nine blocks.
Meanwhile, Concordia All-American Ashley Keck reached a career milestone as she eclipsed 1,000 digs for her career. She became just the fifth player in program history to reach 1,000 in both kills and digs. The Kearney, Neb., native finished her night with nine kills and 18 digs. Scott led the charge with 12 kills. On the front line, Ella Waters (six blocks), Ava Greene (five blocks) and Molli Martin (five blocks) helped the Bulldogs virtually equal the Red Raiders in blocks. Emma Brueggemann chipped in with 16 digs in the back row.
Entering the matchup, five of the previous six Concordia-Northwestern meetings had gone to five sets. Since the start of 2023, the Red Raiders have had the Bulldogs’ number. The two sides met in the GPAC Championship Matches of 2023 and 2024 (with Northwestern winning both times).
Said Boldt, “In these big games, we’ve got to learn how to win them. This is a very memorable teaching point for our team in terms of what it takes to win championships. You typically learn more in a loss than you do in a win. I really want our team to take this and what it feels like and really take a learning moment and move forward.”
The Bulldogs will quickly turn around to host Waldorf (9-8, 1-8 GPAC) on Saturday. Match times are 2:30 p.m. for the junior varsity and 4 p.m. for the varsity from Friedrich Arena. In Friday night’s action, the Warriors fell at No. 18 Midland in five sets.