Concordia-Moorhead vs. Eau Claire Match Review
EAU CLAIRE ADVANCES TO REGIONAL FINAL WITH ANOTHER FIVE-GAME WIN
EAU CLAIRE – For the second consecutive night No. 7-ranked UW-Eau Claire needed five games as they defeated No.3-ranked Concordia-Moorhead (MN) 15-9 in the fifth game to advance to the NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Midwest Regional Final.
The Blugolds won by scores of 30-23, 28-30, 30-25, 21-30, 15-9. The Blugolds will face fellow Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) foe and defending national champion UW-Whitewater. The match will be a rematch from last year’s Midwest Regional Final in which Whitewater rallied from a two games to one deficit to win in five games. The Warhawks defeated Eau Claire twice this season, a five-game victory in the regular season and a four-game win in the WIAC Tournament Championship.
The Blugolds broke open a close game late as they took game one by a score of 30-23. The Blugolds out-scored the Cobbers 10-4 to end the game. The Blugolds came out effective with a .378 attack percentage.
In game two, the Blugolds had an 11-9 lead, but the Cobbers would score the next five points to take a 14-11 lead. Concordia then would have a 28-24 lead, but the Blugolds came back to tie it at 28-28. However, a Blugolds service error and a block gave the Cobbers 30-28 game two win.
The Blugolds had a 9-3 lead to begin game three, however Concordia came back to take a 15-14 lead. The Blugolds then bounced back and went on a 7-1 run to take a 20-15 lead. The Blugolds retained that lead to win the game 30-25.
It was the Cobbers turn to pull away in a close fourth game. With the score 17-16 Concordia, the Cobber would go on a 8-0 run and went on to win the game 30-21.
In the fifth game, neither team had a lead of greater than two in the first half of the game. With the score 9-9, the Blugolds would take the final six points to win 15-9. Nine of the 15 points for Eau Claire were kills. The loss snapped Concordia’s 18-match win streak.
The Blugolds ended with 75 kills in the match. The Cobbers finished with 55 kills. Eau Claire had five players with double figures in kills. Nikki Peterson had 18 kills to lead the Blugolds. Jessica Groh added 15 kills and led the team with eight blocks. Danielle Dahl led the Cobbers with 14 kills and Becca Shane added 13 kills.
UW-Eau Claire and UW-Whitewater will fight for the chance to go to Salem, VA and the Elite Eight tomorrow when they face each other at 7 p.m. in the McPhee Physical Education Center.
