From the service line to the net and everywhere in between, ninth-rated Concordia-St. Paul played Friday night’s volleyball match on its terms at Wachs Arena.
The Golden Bears were in control of every set on the way to a 25-20, 25-16, 25-18 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference win over Northern State.
“We never got them out of their comfort zone,” said Wolves coach Brent Aldridge.
Northern scored the first three points of the opening set for its biggest lead of the night. The Bears consistently pulled away in each set, playing air-tight defense that prevented numerous potential Northern points.
Linnea Nesheim led the Wolves with 11 kills, but was denied many more by the spot-on defense of CSP.
“It’s very frustrating when you go up with all the power you’ve got and they just dig it, because you hit it right to them,” Nesheim said. “They’re such a good defensive team and they obviously showed that tonight.”
The Bears were positioned nearly perfectly on many Northern hitting attempts and were able to keep a lot balls off the floor.
“Their ball control is not limited to serve receive,” Aldridge said. “They out-dug us by 15 balls.”
There was nothing wrong with CSP’s offense either. The Bears employed many quick attacks, often catching the Wolves off guard before they could set their block or defense.
“When they pass perfectly, and they have a good setter, they kind of can set wherever they want,” Nesheim said, “and when they’ve got those quicks going, they’ve got athletic hitters, you just have to try your best to get up as quick as you can.”
Perhaps the biggest dagger on the evening was CSP’s service attack that produced six aces in the second set alone.
“And then you compound that with 3 or 4 missed serves (of ours), you only go to 25,” Aldridge said. “It goes by really, really quickly.”
Whether serving short or long, the Bears were able to serve Northern out of system most of the evening.
“I think we’ve just got to get that cleaned up (Saturday). There’s nothing we can do about it now,” said Northern Liberbo Abby Schauer, “so just have to go forward and get some bigger wins.”
The Wolves were forced into making quick decisions on whether to play serves or let them go.
“Their serves were dropping right on the line,” Nesheim said, “and when you don’t know whether they’re in or out, there’s not much you can do.”
Meanwhile, the Wolves were unable to rattle the Bears, who played with the lead nearly the entire way.
“I think they just played super-clean volleyball, so we just have to control our side and do whatever we can,” Schauer said. “I think next time we’ve got to serve a little bit tougher and take them out of system a little bit more if we can.”
Instead, it was CSP that played the match on its terms.
“They dictated serve, service receive, they dictated trans,” Aldridge said.
As a result, the Bears kept the Wolves on their heels the entire way.
“They did have a really fast offense and obviously ours isn’t necessarily as fast so we don’t see that as much in practice, but we do see it quite a bit throughout our conference,” said Schauer, who led the team with 15 digs. “That’s another thing we kind need to work on the rest of this season that we have left.”
What’s left is five regular season matches, including one against Winona State at 2 this afternoon at Wachs Arena.
“My hope is they don’t ball control like that,” Aldridge said, “because if they do, we’re in for an early afternoon.”
The Wolves, who lost a match last Friday before rebounding for a Saturday victory, are confident heading into today’s match.
“Obviously, it was hard to lose tonight, but they did a great job and we knew that they were a good team,” Nesheim said, “so all we got to do is forget what happened tonight, and come back (Saturday) and play like we know how to.”
And each match is crucial from here on out as the Wolves fight to make the NSIC Tournament.
“I think we’ve just got to get rid of tonight and go into (Saturday),” Schauer said. “We’ve done it before. … We’ve got to split the weekend.”
To see a complete box score, click on the following link:
https://nsuwolves.com/sports/womens-volleyball/stats/2025/concordia-st-paul/boxscore/14031
