MEQUON - St. Norbert College hit and blocked its way to a hard-fought 3-1 win over Concordia University Wisconsin in its regular-season finale in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match at Buuck Fieldhouse.
The Green Knights (18-11, 10-3) topped the Falcons (14-13, 9-4) by scores of 31-33, 25-21, 25-23, 25-13. The victory gives St. Norbert the No. 3 seeding in next week's NACC Tournament, and will host Marian University at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 7) in a quarterfinal match at Mulva Family Fitness & Sports Center.
The marathon first set featured 15 ties and eight lead changes. The Falcons led 21-18 before the Green Knights took a 22-21 lead. Concordia responded for a 24-22 lead but St. Norbert came again to get to set point at 25-24. St. Norbert had four more set points as the deuce set progressed, but Concordia scored the last two points after the final tie at 31-31.
St. Norbert rebounded to take a 17-12 lead in Set 2, but the Falcons fashioned an 8-3 run to tie the set at 20-20. The Green Knights then scored four-straight points, helped by kills from
Rylie Gregg,
Alyssa Mills and
Alli Clark, to take a 24-20 lead and win the set. St. Norbert never trailed in Set 3, eventually building a lead of 20-13. The Falcons did get back to within 24-23 late, but a
Brooke Clement kill gave St. Norbert a 2-1 lead. St. Norbert also never trailed in Set 4, leading 7-2 out of the gate. The Green Knights led 18-12 before a 7-1 run locked up the match.
St. Norbert hit .215 for the match, netting 55 kills with 20 errors in 163 attempts. Clement finished with 22 kills, pushing her over the 1,000 career-kill plateau. Mills added nine and Clark, Gregg and
Mari Szews all had seven apiece.
Heidi Colburn had 25 assists, while
Ellie Hartson had 20 assists and three service aces.
Erin Eggers had 17 digs and Clement had 14 digs. St. Norbert finished with 12 team blocks, with Szews getting eight and Clement five. Clark and Colburn had three apiece.
Concordia hit .032 for the match, with 44 kills and 39 errors in 154 attempts. Maycee Karpfinger had 17 kills to lead the Falcons.
