MOORHEAD, MINN. – The St. Catherine University volleyball team was optimistic entering the final week of the 2017 regular season. The Wildcats were looking to rebound after two disappointing losses by earning their second Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win over Concordia College Wednesday night. Unfortunately, St. Kate's suffered another loss in conference play, falling to the Cobbers in straight set 3-0 (16-25, 22-25, 24-26).

Despite the final score, the Wildcats battled with Concordia throughout the first set. In fact, St. Kate's never allowed the Cobbers to take a substantial lead through the first 15 points and only trailed 10-9 midway through the set. Sadly, trouble on serve receive allowed Concordia to take a 14-10 lead, which was eventually extended to 19-13. Although the Wildcats eventually managed to stop the bleeding, the deficit was too much to overcome in the opening set, as the Cobbers went on to win 25-16.

St. Kate's fell behind early in the second set, as serving runs by Jill Klaphake and Brianna Carney gave Concordia a 12-4 lead early on. However, the Wildcats showed resiliency, cutting the score to 14-10 with serving runs from Brooke Beuning (New London, Minn. / New London-Spicer) and Larissa Kisch (Oakdale, Minn. / Cretin-Derham Hall).  Even though the Cobbers were able to stop St. Kate's runs, the momentum shifted to the Wildcats side of the court, as they scored seven of the next 10 points to even the score at 17-17. Libby Kreuser's (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Totino-Grace) tough serve, blocks from Mackenzie Peper (Osceola, Wis. / Osecola) and Kelly Breuer (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix Lutheran) and a kill from Payton Baker (Forest Lake, Minn. / Forest Lake) allowed St. Kate's to even up the score and seemed to swing the momentum in its direction.

After the scoring, the Wildcats unfortunately hit a bit of a speed bump in the ensuing points. Concordia took a 22-19 lead on a serving run from Lexi Turn, and St. Kate's was never able to recover. Despite getting within two of the Cobbers lead, the Wildcats were unable to tie the set, falling by a final score of 25-22.

The third set proved to be the most exciting, as St. Kate's tried to force a third set with its first victory of the night. Emma Nelson (Byron, Minn. / Byron) led the Wildcats to their first lead of the night, as they jumped out 3-0 thanks to tough serving. Concordia tied the score at 3-3, and the two teams traded the lead back and forth for the next several points. Every time the Cobbers would take a lead, St. Kate's was right there to tie the set back up and visa versa. Neither team was able to really gain a substantial lead, until Concordia jumped ahead 23-20 with the match seemingly in hand.

That was when the Wildcats showed their grit. One point after an error, Kreuser recorded a monster kill from the outside to cut the Cobbers lead to 23-21. St. Kate's then won the next two points on back-to-back kills from Peper, evening the score at 23-23 and later 24-24 after Concordia won the next point on a Wildcat attack error. Unfortunately, St. Kate's couldn't tie the set after the Cobbers took a 25-24 lead, falling 26-24 in the set and 3-0 in the match.

Kreuser led the team with 11 kills during the match and a .286 hitting percentage, her best numbers of the season, while Beuning had a career day as the team's top setter. The first year tallied a career-high 18 assists in the loss and also recorded eight digs. Nelson led the team defensively with 14 digs, while Bailey Auseth (Wanamingo, Minn. / Kenyon-Wanamingo) added 13.

With the loss, the Wildcats overall record falls to 9-15 and the team has a 1-9 mark in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return for its final match of the regular season on Saturday, when it hosts St. Thomas at 3 p.m. in the Butler Center Gym.