MATCH RECAP:

NORTHFIELD, Minn. (9/28/07)--Concordia successfully completed the first leg of their annual back-to-back MIAC road trip by sweeping St. Olaf 30-27, 30-16, 30-18 in Northfield on Friday. The Cobbers shook off their "bus" legs late in the opening game and then sprinted to the three-game sweep. The win pushes the 12th-ranked Cobbers' overall record to 8-4. They are now 3-1 in conference play.

The youthful Oles could never recover from watching their 25-22 lead in game 1 evaporate, as CC won the final four points of the game after they had rallied to tie the score at 26-26. St. Olaf is now 6-7 overall and has lost four of their past five matches. The Oles slide to 1-4 in the early stages of the league schedule.

Once again the story for the Cobbers was the outstanding team defense. Concordia held St. Olaf to a .024 attack percentage in the match and recorded nine team blocks in the three games. It is the second-most blocks in a three-game match for CC this season. The team posted a season-high 12.0 blocks in their sweep over then 15th-ranked Ohio Northern. Junior Abby Scheel led the Concordia defense with five individual blocks. She was helped out by senior Michelle Honek and freshman Valerie Glynn who both posted three blocks.

Offensively, nine players recorded at least two kills. Honek once again posted team-highs in the category. She finished with 10 kills to go along with her three blocks. She also added a team-high 12 digs and needs only 29 more digs to become the school's all-time dig leader. Scheel had one of her best all-around matches of the season. Besides her five blocks, she had six kills and two digs. Angie Bonde was the final member of the team with at least five kills. She had five kills to go with eight digs. Jill Hance and  Alyssa Dahl once again assumed the role of the two-headed setter. Hance had a team-high 13 assists and Dahl chipped in 11.

St. Olaf had one more kill than the Cobbers (40-39) but finished with 26 more attack errors. They hit a match-high .071 in the first game but then steadily slid downward, coming up with only a -.023 attack percentage in the final game. Kim Smisek led all players with 18 kills on the night. Kelly Prunty posted a match-high 33 assists and Alyssa Williams had 17 digs.

Concordia travel south to take on St. Mary's on Saturday at 3 p.m. The match will feature live stats which can be accessed from the St. Mary's athletics website at: www.saintmaryssports.com/index.asp?path=wvball