LISLE, Ill. – The Concordia Wisconsin women's volleyball team opened Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play in dominant fashion on Wednesday night. The Falcons flew past Benedictine in straight sets, 25-16, 25-16, 25-17, to improve to 7-4 overall and 1-0 in the NACC.
The Falcons finished the night with 45 kills and a scorching .320 hitting percentage while holding the Eagles to a .091 clip. CUW also collected seven service aces, 61 digs and seven total blocks.
Concordia Wisconsin started quickly in the opening set, but Benedictine battled back to even the score at 7-7. The Falcons responded with a run of their own.
Junior Madison Cimbalnik (Sturtevant, Wis.) sparked the separation from the service line. Cimbalnik ripped back-to-back aces before sophomore Kirsten Krause (Pocatello, Idaho) connected on a kill to cap a 6-1 CUW run and give the Falcons a 14-8 advantage.
Sophomore Kaylee Hlinak (Mishicot, Wis.) helped put the opening set away with four kills down the stretch. CUW never allowed the Eagles back into the set and secured the 25-16 victory.
The Falcons continued to soar in the second set. With CUW leading 7-5, Cimbalnik returned to the service line and helped fuel another four-point burst. She delivered consecutive aces before Hlinak hammered home a kill to stretch the lead to 10-5.
Freshman Natalie Nickolai (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) and freshman Brianna Stewart (De Pere, Wis.) added to the attack as Concordia Wisconsin steadily pulled away. Hlinak fittingly finished the set with a kill to give the Falcons another 25-16 victory.
CUW came out firing again in the third set. With the Falcons leading 4-3, Nickolai stepped to the service line and helped engineer an eight-point run. Nickolai had a kill and an ace during the surge, while senior Emily Dickmann (Grafton, Wis.), Stewart and Hlinak all found the floor to push the advantage to 12-3.
The Eagles refused to disappear and erased the deficit with a 12-3 run to tie the set at 15.
Concordia Wisconsin answered the challenge.
Krause stopped the Benedictine run with a kill before Nickolai followed with another. The Falcons later closed the match on a 7-0 run behind the serve of Nickolai. Hlinak hammered home four kills during the closing stretch, including the match-clinching point for the 25-17 victory.
Hlinak highlighted an efficient CUW attack with a match-high 15 kills while committing just one error on 24 swings for a .583 hitting percentage. Nickolai added 10 kills on a .450 clip, three service aces and nine digs.
Dickmann directed the offense with 34 assists while adding three kills on three attempts, five digs and two blocks. Stewart finished with six kills without an attack error and a match-high four blocks.
Freshman Samantha Thomas (Kaukauna, Wis.) paced the Falcons with 15 digs, while freshman Emy Miller (West Bend, Wis.) collected 14 digs. Cimbalnik caused problems from the service line all night with a match-high four aces.
The Falcons return to action on Friday against Saint Mary's of Minnesota at Wartburg.
