Volleyball's season ends at Edgewood in NAC Tournament

Volleyball's season ends at Edgewood in NAC Tournament

MADISON, Wis. – Concordia University Wisconsin put together a remarkable run to get into the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament a week ago, but the momentum ended on Tuesday night at Edgewood College in the opening round of the league's tournament. The No. 1-ranked Eagles ended the No. 8-ranked Falcons season with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) victory at the Todd Wehr Edgedome.

EC (25-8) finished the match with a .232 hitting percentage, while CUW (8-24) could only muster a .039 attacking percentage despite having more attack attempts. There were eight scoring ties and three lead changes in the match, but the Eagles controlled the majority of the match.

Mallory Palmer smashed a match-best 13 kills, while Lindsey Swansby assisted on a match-high 29 kills to go along with nine digs for EC. Sarah Schuchhardt recorded three block assists and two block solos, as the Eagles had eight total blocks.

Sophomore Carley Valentine (De Pere, Wis.) led the Falcons with an overall performance that included eight kills, seven assists and six digs. Sophomore Erin Howard (Labadie, Mo.) had a team-high 15 digs and freshman Melissa Jonas (Watertown, Wis.) assisted on 11 kills.

The Eagles jumped out to a commanding 12-6 lead in the opening frame, but the Falcons responded and tied the set at 14-14 after three-straight EC attacking errors. CUW wasn't able to hang on as EC scored seven of the frame's last eight points to take a 1-0 (25-18) lead.

Both teams traded points in the first half of the second set with the Eagles holding a slight 13-12 advantage. Again, EC rattled off a large scoring run, 12-3, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Eagles poured it on the in the final frame, leading by as many as 10 points, before winning the match after a 25-18 third set victory.