ST. PAUL, Minn. (Sept. 4) – The Central Washington University volleyball team played its second game of the Holiday Inn Volleyball Clash against No. 2 Concordia University St. Paul.  The Wildcats fell to the Golden Bears 3-0 (18-25, 24-26, 21-25).  Central Washington is now 0-2 on the season, while Concordia-St. Paul is 1-1. 

The Golden Bears took a 2-0 lead in the first set and did not look back.  The two teams traded points, but Concordia-St. Paul was able to retain their lead throughout the set.  The Wildcats worked to battle back a few times through the set, including cutting the deficit to one after a 3-0 run. The Golden Bears held and took the set 25-18.

Central Washington came out fast in set two.  They took a 4-0 lead on a kill from both Kaitlin Quirk and Linden Firethorne.  Concordia-St. Paul's Kasey Williams was whistled for a bad set and then a hitting error from Emma Lange gave the Wildcats the first four points.  The Golden Bears battled back to cut their deficit to just one, at 6-5.  The teams traded points before Concordia-St.Paul posted a 4-0 run to take a 10-8 advantage. 
 
A few points later, Firethorne took a set from Catie Fry and found the floor for a kill to bring CWU back to within one, 12-11.  On the ensuing point, Concordia-St. Paul's Mariya Sampson had her attack stuffed by Sabrina Wheelhouse and Fry to even the score at 12-12. 

The Golden Bears then took a 22-17 lead, looking to put the second set away.  Shelby Suerer looked to add to Concordia-St.Paul's advantage, but Kiah Jones registered a solo block to start a 6-0 Wildcat run.  Central Washington's run was bookended by blocks, as Fry and Quirk plugged up an attack from Sampson to give the Wildcats a 23-22 advantage.

Concordia-St. Paul tallied the next two points to lead 24-23, before Quirk and Firethorne recorded a block on an attack by Lange.  The Golden Bears picked up the next two points to take the set 26-24.

The Golden Bears nabbed a 4-1 lead in the third set and would not relinquish their lead. 

"Serving and passing is the deal now," head coach Mario Andaya said.  "It's not hard to see where we need to improve, but losing two primary passers from last year we knew we would take some lumps.  Concordia is very good, but we gave them some free shots at us.  When we settled down in set two I saw a pretty good match.  We're taking lumps in the loss column, but we are not looking at that.  I'm pretty excited about the things we are doing well."

Firethorne finished with 13 kills and three block assists.  Quirk tallied 10 kills and six block assists.  Jones picked up six kills, one solo block, and a block assist. 

The Wildcats will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m. PST to face Palm Beach Atlantic University.