The Gustavus volleyball team pushed #18 Concordia to the limit on Friday night in St. Peter, but could not close the deal and lost to the Cobbers 3-2. The set scores were 25-19, 13-25, 25-21, 17-25, 7-15.
The Gusties came out sharp in the first set and showed lots of energy against the first place Cobbers. Leading 13-12, the Gusties rode the serving of Angela Ahrendt to a 4-0 spurt that pushed the lead to 17-12. Concordia would get no closer four points the rest of the set and the Gusties won 25-19.
The Cobbers bounced back in the second set claiming a convincing 25-13 victory, but Gustavus hung tough in the third set. Concordia built a 15-12 lead and had the Gusties on the ropes, but Gustavus answered the challenge scoring five of the next six points to take a 17-16 lead. The Gusties took the lead for good at 19-18 and held on to win the third set 25-21.
In the fourth set, the score was tied at 9-9 when the Cobbers scored nine of the next 11 points to take a decisive 18-11 lead. The Gusties would get no closer than six points the rest of the set and Concordia tied up the match at 2-2 with a 25-17 win in the fourth set.
The Gusties got off to a slow start in the fifth set committing three attack errors and two ballhandling errors in the first ten points allowing the Cobbers to jump out to a 7-3 lead. Concordia controlled play for the rest of the set and closed out the match by winning the decisive fifth set by the score of 15-7.
Three Gustavus players registered double-digit digs including Angela Ahrendt with 13, Nicki Ainsworth with 11, and Dana Boerboom with 10. Katie Vohnoutka led Concordia with 20 kills, while Jenna Green contributed 15 and Alison Bruggeman added 10.
The Gusties fall to 7-16 overall and 1-8 in the MIAC, while the Cobbers improve to 21-4 overall and move into a first place tie with St. Thomas and St. Olaf with a league mark of 7-1.