Box Score DENVER - Florida Southern opened play here Friday afternoon in the Colorado Premier Challenge by suffering a three-set loss (25-21, 25-11, 25-10) to No. 4 ranked Concordia-St. Paul at the Auraria Events Center on the Metro State campus.
With the win, the Golden Bears, who are the six-time defending NCAA Division II National Champions, improved to 5-1 on the season, while the Moccasins fell to 3-2.
In Friday's opener of the Premier Challenge, the Mocs were paced by six kills and two blocks from junior right side hitter Gabby Fernandez (Tampa, Fla.), while sophomore middle blocker Kayshia Brady (Welaka, Fla.), senior middle blocker Dominique Hale (Kingman, Ariz.) and junior outside hitter Kate Stromberg (Lexington, Ky.) each had five kills in the match.
The Mocs, who are playing in the Premier Challenge for the fourth time and first time since 2011, hit .202 for the match and committed just 12 attack errors and had 30 kills, while Concordia, who improved to 27-6 all-time in the tournament, hit .484 for the match and had 51 blocks and outdug the Mocs, 41-28.
In the first set, the Golden Bears jumped out to a 9-5 lead, before the Mocs used a 6-2 run capped by a solo block by Fernandez to take an 11-10 lead. CU tied the set one point later following a bad set by sophomore setter Kendall Marotti (LaBelle, Fla.), before Brady slammed home a kill to give FSC its final lead of the set at 12-11. Following Brady's kill, CU used a 9-2 scoring run to take a 20-14 lead. The run was keyed by three kills from Erienne Lauersdorf. The Mocs, though, would answer with a 6-2 run to pull within 22-20 following a Stromberg kill. That would as close as FSC got as the Golden Bears scored three of the final four points to seal the 25-21 win.
The second set belonged to Concordia as they jumped out to a 7-1 lead and led 9-2 when the Mocs scored two of the next four points to pull within 11-4. From that point, the Golden Bears lead would grow to as much as 24-9, before FSC used kills from Fernandez and Hale to push within 24-11. CU, though, would seal the set win with a kill from Lauersdorf, who finished with 11 on the day, to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, CU scored the set's first point, before FSC tied the set one play later on a kill from Hale. That would be as close as the Mocs would get as CU went on a 10-3 run to push its lead to 11-4. The run was stopped by a Lauersdorf service error to make the score 11-5, but the Golden Bears would close the set scoring 14 of the final 19 points to post a 25-10 win and earn the three-set sweep.
Marotti, who was named to the FSC/Terrace Hotel Classic All-Tournament Team last weekend, finished the match with 25 assists, three kills and hit .429, while Hale hit .500 and sophomore outside hitter Bridgette Ward (Fort Myers, Fla.) made her season debut with two kills and a .667 hitting percentage. Junior libero Catherine Brusie (North Branch, Mich.) kept her streak of double-digit dig matches intact as she recorded a team-high 11 against Concordia. Brusie, who is a transfer from Winthrop University, has recorded 10 or more digs in all five matches this season.
In addition to Lauersdorf's 11 kills, Riley Hansen added 11 kills and hit .588 in the win, while Heather Schiller added 10 kills and hit .588. Kayla Koenecke finished with nine kills, eight digs and hit .421 for the match.
The Mocs will return to action in the Premier Challenge later in the day on Friday as they complete pool play against 15th-ranked Truman State (3-1). The match is set for 5:30 p.m. EDT.
FSC won't know their Saturday opponents until the completion of Friday's pool play action. The first place teams in the four pools will play in the Gold bracket, while the second-place teams advance to the Silver bracket and the third-place team will play in the Bronze bracket. The championship match is scheduled for 9 p.m. EDT.
