DE PERE, Wis. – The Concordia Wisconsin women's volleyball team fought hard on the road on Tuesday night and pulled out a gritty victory at St. Norbert. The Falcons soared out of St. Norbert with a 22-25, 25-22, 25-10, 17-25, 19-17 victory to send the Falcons to 7-11 and 4-2 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. St. Norbert is no longer unbeaten in conference play at 5-1 and moves to 16-7 on the year.
The first set was a tightly contested battle with neither team able to gain much separation. The biggest lead of the set for either team was at 18-15 for St. Norbert. The Falcons quickly stormed back with a 4-0 run to take the lead at 19-18. Senior Abby Proefrock (Grafton, Wis.) cut the SNC lead to 22-23, but the Green Knights took the next two points to win the set.
St. Norbert jumped out to an early 6-1 lead in the second set. Concordia clipped the deficit to a point at 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, but that is the closest the Falcons could get until the serve of senior Brianna Lundt (Rosendale, Wis.) spring-boarded the Falcons back into the match with a 7-0 run to tie the set at 18. With the set tied at 22, sophomore Kayla Mulder (Whitehall, Mich.) broke the tie with a thunderous kill and a kill from senior Ashley Habermehl (Brookfield, Wis.) ended the set at 25-22.
The Falcons flipped the script in the third set and went on a rampage. A block from sophomore Olivia Ibeling (Cambridge, Wis.) and senior Noelle Smith (Davenport, Iowa) started the set off and it was a wave of blue blitz the rest of the set. The Birds soared the lead up to 20-8 with a kill at the net for Ashley Habermehl who was waiting for the free ball to float back onto the CUW side. A brilliant serve for Brianna Lundt brought up set point and Olivia Ibeling ended the set at 25-10 with a kill down the near line.
Concordia held a 9-6 lead in the fourth set before the Green Knight won six-straight points to take the lead. CUW cut the SNC to two points on four occasions, but St. Norbert sailed to a 25-17 victory to force a fifth set.
Tuesday marked the first fifth-set match for the Falcons since the 3-2 upset over No. 13 Wisconsin-Platteville on Sept. 13.
Momentum started with the Falcons in the start of the fifth set as the Birds flew out to a 3-0 lead with kills from Noelle Smith and Abby Proefrock. St. Norbert was forced to call a timeout after a kill from Abby Proefrock a block for Abby Proefrock and senior Paige Stickney (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) over Benter and a bad set elevated the lead to 6-1. The Falcons held an 8-1 lead at the switch after Paige Stickney and Olivia Ibeling posted a block on Stevenson. Momentum then swayed to the Green Knights as they fought back and claimed a 14-12 lead. The Blue and White fought off two match points with a block from Ashley Hebermehl and Noelle Smith and a kill from Abby Proefrock. CUW showed off more grit with fighting off two more match points. A service error gave the Falcons the lead at 18-17 and Ashley Habermehl knocked a kill off the SNC block to secure the road victory.
Ashley Habermehl and Abby Proefrock led the match with 14 kills in the victory. They both also finished with double-double performance with 19 and 12 digs respectively.
Sophomore McKenna Oetzman (Reedsburg, Wis.) finished with 29 assists against the Green and Gold to go with her 16 digs.
Tuesday was a Blue and White block party with 12 blocks. Paige Stickney led the was with eight blocks and Olivia Ibeling finished with a career-best five.
Brianna Lundt led the Birds with 22 digs and two service aces.
The Falcons resume NACC play on Thursday night at Rockford.
