Concord Closes Road Slate with Second Straight Win

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The Concord University volleyball team picked up a pivotal Mountain East Conference win over West Virginia Wesleyan at the Rockefeller Center Saturday morning.

The Mountain Lions improve to 11-17 overall and 5-6 in the MEC as they defeated WVWC (9-16, 4-7 MEC) in four sets, 25-19, 22-25, 29-27, 27-25.

CU fell behind 14-11 in the first set, but went on a 9-2 run to gain control of the game on its way to a six-point win in the first game. Concord needed just two kills, one each from junior middle hitter Brooke Heck and sophomore middle hitter Ellie Lawrence, during the run as Wesleyan had three bad sets and three attack errors.

The Bobcats were able to pull away near the end of the second set as they edged the Mountain Lions by three points to even the match 1-1.

Neither team could take control of the third set as the entire set was played within three points on the scoreboard. Down 25-24, kills by sophomore middle hitter Emily Ellis and junior outside hitter Alexi Pranckus put Concord up 26-25. WVWC came back to tie the set at 27-27, but Heck ended things with consecutive kills to put CU up 2-1 in the contest.

After a tight start to the fourth set, Concord opened up a 19-15 lead. However, the Bobcats made a run that ended with back-to-back kills from Hannah King to knot the game at 21-21.
Heck had an answer to the run with a kill, and another bad set from WVWC pushed Concord to a 23-21 margin. Again, Wesleyan tied the set at 23-23. But, four of the final six points of the match were Bobcats' errors as Concord held off WVWC for the fourth-set victory.

Heck finished with a season-high 17 kills and a hitting percentage of .394. Ellis, Lawrence and Pranckus all added 11 kills. Lawrence registered 14 digs for her fourth double-double of the season. Pranckus tallied 11 digs to tally her third double-double of the year.

Senior setter Casey Mandeville handed out 33 assists for the second-highest total in her career. Sophomore setter Jenna Mounts racked up 19 assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.

Freshman libero Lindsay Maddox followed up 18 digs against Glenville State with 33 on Saturday.

Concord finishes the season with five straight home games starting 5:00 p.m. Friday against West Liberty.