SEWARD, Neb. – With one more chance to play in front of the home fans this season, the 19th-ranked Concordia University Volleyball team did not disappoint. While riding the hot left hands of Arleigh Costello and Carly Rodaway on the right side, the Bulldogs toppled visiting Ave Maria University (Fla.), 25-12, 25-23, 25-19, on Saturday (Nov. 20) afternoon as part of the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. Concordia made its fourth all-time national tournament appearance while the visitors from Florida made their first.
Head Coach Ben Boldt’s program will be headed to the final site of the national tournament for a third-straight season. Concordia has won six of its last seven matches to move to 17-11 overall.
“I was proud of the resilience of our team,” Boldt said. “We talk about being tough after 20, and we were certainly that in the second set. We also talk about earning our way there. I think we had that mentality. I was happy to see us take the match into our own hands.
“We made a little bit of an adjustment towards the middle of the second set. We liked the matchup for our right sides so we fed them the ball. They did a really good job. That was probably the best game that both of those two have had combined. They really showed out today.”
The Gyrenes (22-8) seemed to take a moment to settle into their surroundings after a long trip up north. The opening set did not take long. The Bulldogs came out ablaze, hitting .433 with 17 kills (four errors) in the first set. But Ave Maria decided it wasn’t going down that easily and turned the second set into a nail-biter.
Trailing 22-20 in the second set, Concordia responded with the help of a kill from Gabi Nordaker and then back-to-back service aces from Lexie Kreizel. Set point later came on a Gyrene attack error. The Bulldogs made headway in that set when setters Tara Callahan and Bree Burtwistle made a point of passing to the right side. Costello and Rodaway both put away a team high 11 kills. Costello hit a sizzling .625 and ultimately ended the match with her final kill of the day.
Said Costello, “It was really fun getting to travel last year (to New Orleans) but being here with the home crowd is a great way to end our home season and move on. Our crowd and our fans are awesome so it was great to be back here for nationals … We just have such a balanced offense. All of our hitters are amazing and we have two amazing setters who can get us the ball.”
On the other side of the net, Cabriella Bouterse (12 kills) impressed with her hard hitting from the outside. Rita Campos added eight kills and five blocks. The Gyrenes were outhit for the match, .308 to .111. They reached the opening round after winning The Sun Conference tournament.
In addition to the 11 kills apiece from Costello and Rodaway, Camryn Opfer notched nine kills (and 12 digs) and Nordaker totaled eight kills and four blocks. Kreizel collected four aces and five digs. Callahan (27 assists) and Burtwistle (17 assists) combined for 44 assists while leading an attack that racked up 48 kills for the day. Burtwistle added eight digs in the back row.
Said Boldt, “I was glad to see our hitters work in transition to put themselves in good positions to attack … They’re a physical team. I think they would have matched up well in the GPAC as far as physicality goes. We’ve been through the conference ringer so we’re definitely prepared for these types of matches.”
Pool play assignments for the final site of the 2021 NAIA Volleyball National Championships will be announced on Sunday by the NAIA. The final 24 teams left standing will be divided into eight pools with three squads in each of them. Pool play will take place Nov. 30-Dec. 1 with bracket play to follow Dec. 2-4. All matches in pool and bracket play will be staged inside the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.