MONMOUTH, Ore. (Oct. 13) – Redshirt freshman outside hitter Amanda Short led Western Oregon in kills, and the Wolves played nearly even with Concordia, but the Wolves fell to the visiting Cavaliers in four sets on Tuesday night at the New P.E. Pavilion. Set scores were 25-19, 25-22, 21-25 and 25-20 in favor of CU.
 
The loss dropped the Wolves to 4-14 overall and 1-8 in Great Northwest Athletics Conference action. Concordia Portland improved to 12-5 overall and 4-5 in the conference.
 
Short had 13 kills while Paige Kelsey and Mariella Vandenkooy each added nine kills each.
 
The Cavaliers opened up a 7-2 lead in the opening set and extended it to 18-10 before holding off the Wolves in game one.
 
Western Oregon led a see-saw battle in the second set, 15-11, before Concordia scored seven of the next eight points. A kill from Alisha Bettinson and a CU attack error tied the set at 20-20. Two runs of successive points gave CU enough breathing room to take the game by three points despite the home team hitting .306 from the floor.
 
WOU took advantage of a few CU miscues in the third game to take a 10-7 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish. Short's pair of kills preceded an ace from setter Maddie Mehciz for a solid 23-16 lead. Concordia tried a final push, but a long serve pushed Western Oregon to the set win, 25-21.
 
CU sealed the match with runs of four and five points respectively to reach match point. WOU stayed alive with two points on a Sydney Blankinship kill and Short ace, but an attack error erased any WOU comeback chance.
 
Western Orregon bested the Cavalier in aces, blocks and digs. The teams had nearly identical totals in the error department. One key difference was overall kills, with CU holding a 57-49 advantage.
 
Spearheading the Wolves' defensive efforts on Tuesday was Christie Colasurdo with 33 digs, while freshman setter had nine digs and 26 assists.
 
Concordia was led by 15 kills from Brenna Huwe and Lindsey Dorsey. Jenessa Taylor had all but three of the Cavalier's 54 assists while Vicky Gajda had a team-high 21 digs.
 
WOU will hit the road for a single match at Montana State Billings on Thursday (Oct. 15) at 7 p.m. Mountain time.