Sept. 27, 2011 - The Concordia volleyball team notched a big win in the first of two Northern Athletics Conference road matches this week, defeating the Milwaukee School of Engineering in four sets (25-19, 15-25, 25-15, 25-23) at the Kern Center on Tuesday night.
Sarah Potter (New Haven, IN/Woodlan), who would lead the Cougars for the night with 19 kills, recorded five of them in the opening set. Concordia hit .243 while MSOE was plagued by nine hitting errors and hit for a negative percentage. However, the roles were reversed in set two as the Raiders hit .370 to the Cougars .056 in evening up the match at one win apiece.
In set three, the Cougars showed their sharpest hitting of the night, racking up 16 kills and a .333 attack. Bianca Gordon's (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran) kill snapped an 8-8 tie, gicing the Cougars the lead for the remainder of the set, and kills by Allison Sapiro (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran) and Claire Mackey (Shelton, NE/Heartland Lutheran) highlighted a closing 6-0 run that put the Cougars one win away from clinching the match.
The final set win did not come easily as MSOE came back from 21-17 down to tie the set at 23-23. However, Savanna Ashbaugh (Waverly, IL/H.S.) set Potter for consecutive kills to wrap up Concordia's third conference victory in four tries.
Potter's 19 kills were backed by Mackey with 10 and Gordon with nine. The Cougars' recent switch to the 5-1 offense resulted in Ashbaugh recording a season-high 40 assists. Defensively, Concordia was led by Maryl Pinotti (Evergreen Park, IL/H.S.) with 24 digs, Ashbaugh with 15 and Mackey with 12.
Concordia (7-9, 3-1 NAC) will return to Wisconsin on Friday night when they take on Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown.
