#2 Concordia and #5 Westmont played an absolute classic in Santa Barbara on Tuesday night, September 18 inside Murchison Gym.  The Eagles refused to accept their first GSAC loss since November 13, 2010 and took the match 3-2.  The final set went to 22-20 CU before finally coming to a halt.

Reigning NAIA Player of the Year Brooke Marino lived up to that billing and more as she recorded 24 kills in 60 attempts.  She also recorded 14 digs and had three blocks.  Marino's senior leadership was on display as she kept coach Dan Fisher's GSAC record perfect at 20-0 and led her team through the trenches, especially while staying alive in the fifth set.  Plenty of ladies were in support of Marino.  Junior Madison Ekis had 12 kills and Le Mi had 10 winners, while hitting .381 with seven blocks.  Reanna Schelhaas added nine kills and hit .350.  WC won the block battle 12 to 10.5, but CU hit .218 compared to .192 for Westmont.  CU setters Jenee Henderson and Elizabeth Younglove had 34 and 22 assists respectively, and Henderson also had 15 digs.

Madison Serrano led Westmont with 14 kills and Ciara Turner contributed 11.  Concordia had 66 kills compared to 56 for WC. 

"Tonight was total team effort and we stepped up to the challenge," CU assistant coach Lindsey Campbell said.  "We dealt with adversity at times during the match, but we overcame every time."

Concordia jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, but WC came storming back to a 8-8 tie.  Westmont took a two-point lead and spread it to four at 17-13.  WC held the three-point edge and took over late with three straight points to win 25-19.  CU struggled mightily early, hitting only .044.

The Eagles came out guns blazing in the second game and went up 10-1 paced by two Hillary Crone kills and multiple Warrior errors.  CU held that spread and finished strong with three-straight Schelhaas kills to win 25-12.  CU hit a scorching .394, while WC came in at .000.

Set three was back and forth early, but Westmont took control with two Madison Serrano kills and a CU error to go up 14-9.  CU closed the gap to 14-12, but fell back again 22-16 before the Warriors closed it out 25-20.

CU fought right back and took an early 10-6 lead in the fourth game.  They expanded that lead to 16-9 on a Crone kill.  Westmont never got closer than five and Concordia happily accepted the back-and-forth finish for the 25-18 win.  Concordia hit .429 to pull to 2-2 in the match.

The fifth set was truly something for the books.  Westmont was looking good up 8-4 in the game to 15.  An Ekis kill and two WC errors made it 8-7 and CU was right back.  The teams traded points before Westmont went up 11-9.  Concordia used a timeout and fell down 13-10 coming out of the break.  Two Marino kills and one Westmont error saw CU come back to 13 all.  WC was a set point at 14-13 and 15-14, but Concordia stood tall both times.  Concordia then had set point at 16-15, 17-16, 18-17, 19-18, 20-19, before finally taking it 22-20.  Marino and Ekis carried the load down the stretch with multiple kills and the CU defense fought back every time Westmont had a chance to win.  CU won the set, despite hitting .062.

Concordia improved to a perfect 15-0 and 2-0 in the GSAC.  Westmont dropped to 15-2 and 1-1 in the conference.  Concordia is back in action on Saturday, September 22 at 7 pm as they welcome new GSAC-member Arizona Christian into CU Arena for the first time.  Watch the live video stream and live stats at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/cui.portal#.