MOORHEAD, Minn. - The Bemidji State University volleyball team continued play in the Concordia Invitational today as the Beavers played the Mayville State Comets and the Concordia College Cobbers. The Beavers swept the Comets in three games (30-22, 30-27, 30-28) in the first game of the day but fell to the Cobbers in five games (27-30, 24-30, 30-15, 31-29, 9-15) in the
Beavers final contest of the Invite. Bemidji State ended the tournament with a 2-2 record.

The Beavers controlled much of the action in their first match of the day against the Mayville State Comets. Bemidji State pounded out 40 kills en-route to the three game sweep. Nicole Olson (Baudette, Minn.) led the Beavers offensive charge with 10 kills, hitting at a .381 pace (10k-2e-21at). Fellow newcomer Heather Sampson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) joined Olson with eight kills, hitting .278 (8k-3e-18at) for the match.

Defensively for the Beavers two players recorded double-digit dig totals. Brie Groskreutz (Reedsburg, Wis.) led the team with 15 digs while Brittney Burns (LeSueur, Minn.) was close behind with 14 digs. Sampson led BSU with three blocks, one solo and two assisted.

For the third straight match Allison Kunde (Burnsville, Minn.) reached at least thirty assists with 34 to led the way for the Beavers.

The win over the Comets is the eleventh consecutive time the Beavers have
beat the Comets and improves the Beavers record to 29-4 all-time versus
Mayville State.

The final match of the day the Beavers found themselves up against a very
good Concordia College Cobber team. In a game of runs, the Cobbers jumped
out to a two-game lead and looked to have the match at hand but the Beavers
battled back to win games three and four, beating the Cobbers handily in
game 3, 30-15 and holding on for the win in game 4, 31-29. The match went
to a deciding fifth game where the Beavers comeback would come up short as
the Cobbers put the match away with a 9-15 win over the Beavers.

The Beavers offensive attack hit .312 (70-10-192) for the match, but ended
up committing costly errors as the Beavers committed 37 errors in the match.

Bemidji State was led by Burns and Groskreutz who both turned in their best
performances of the season as they both recorded Bemidji State’s first
double-doubles of the season. Burns led the way with 16 kills and 20 digs,
while Groskreutz had 14 kills and 19 digs in the match. This was Burn’s 26th
double-double of her career, while it was the fifth double-double in
Groskreutz career.

Olson and Sampson each recorded career highs in kills as Olson recorded her
fourth straight game in double digits with 15 kills, and Sampson notched 14
kills.

The Beavers recorded 22 blocks in the contest with five solo blocks and 17
assisted blocks. Groskreutz, Olson, and Sampson led the charge with four
blocks apiece.

Allison Kunde set a new career-high with 40 set assists in the match while
Alicia Beaman (St. Paul Park, Minn.) added 23 set assists in the match.

Bemidji State is now 2-2 on the season. The Beavers will open up Northern
Sun Intercollegiate Conference action next weekend when the Beavers will
travel to Aberdeen, S.D. to take on the Northern State Wolves at 7:00 p.m.
on Friday, Sept. 7 and then will travel to Bismarck, N.D. to battle the
University of Mary Marauders for a 3:00 p.m. match on Saturday, Sept. 8.

--beavers--