#1 Golden Bears Advance to Fourth Straigh National Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The #1 Golden Bears will play for their fourth straight national title tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. CST following a sweep of #23 Dowling the in the National Semi Finals, 3-0 (25-13, 25-10, 25-20). The CU offense hit .467 in the match, their highest ever in the NCAA Championships as they won their 21st straight match this season and 23rd straight NCAA Tournament match. The match with Dowling included three out of the last four AVCA National Freshman of the Year winners.

Concordia got outstanding offense performances from both middles' Emily Palkert and Cassie Haag. Haag had 11 kills and hit .769 in the match, which is seventh best all time in school history and the best ever in post season play by a CU hitter. Palkert had 14 kills on 20 attempts and zero errors hitting .700. Palkert also added five blocks including four solo. Combined the two combined for 25 kills on 33 attacks and just one error, all equaling a hitting percentage of .727.

"The key to those numbers are because they are great players and we had great setting from Amanda and our serve receive was giving good passes to our setter," explained coach Brady Starkey after the win.

If you include Megan Carlson's nine kill, two blocks and two service aces the three scored 42.5 points for CU. Those 42.5 points accounted for 77.2% of the teams scoring.

Senior Krista Erikson had seven digs to lead the CU defense who held Dowling to .181 hitting on the night and forced 17 hitting errors.

The Golden Bears jumped out in set one to 10-5 lead and forced a quick Dowling timeout. Following the timeout DC scored twice to pull within three but CU scored eight straight points pull away from the Golden Lions 18-7. The Golden Bears and Golden Lions traded points for the rest of the set and CU came away with a 25-13 set win. CU held DC to just .062 hitting in the first set.

Concordia flexed their muscles in the second set as they jumped out to a 11-3 lead and extended it even further going up 17-4 and taking a commanding lead. The Golden Bears hit an outstanding .713 in the second set with 16 kills on 21 attempts as they won set two 25-10.

The Golden Lions found their game in the third set as it was a lot more competitive then the two previous. CU jumped out to an early 6-1 lead but DC pulled within two at 8-6. CU lead for the whole set but didn't regain a five point advantage until late in the set at 20-15. Concordia extended the lead to six at 23-17 their largest of the set and took set three 25-20.

CU will now play for their fourth straight National Championship tomorrow at 3 p.m. CST.

"Each game is different and tomorrow it will be the same way," said Carlson when she was asked out playing for the title again.

Haag echoed saying, "we need to play hard and play great defense if we want to win tomorrow afternoon."

Concordia will play the winner of #2 Tampa University and #8 Central Missouri. CU has played each this season going 1-0 against Central Missouri and 1-1 against the Spartans of Tampa.