DENVER – For three back-and-forth sets, the Seattle Pacific Falcons went toe-to-toe with No. 5-ranked Concordia St. Paul – an NCAA Division II volleyball program like no other, with its nine national championships.
 
The Golden Bears, however, ultimately showed why they have that lofty status.
 
Hannah Hair and Coco Barnett combined for 16 kills and 13 blocks, but Concordia had a little more in the tank in each set  for a 3-0 victory on Friday evening in the Colorado Premier Challenge tournament.
 
Scores in the Berce Athletic Center were 25-23, 25-22, 25-22.

 
That was the second match of the day for the Falcons (0-6). Earlier, they dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 23 Lewis, 3-0 (25-19, 29-27, 25-16).
 
That puts Seattle Pacific into the Bronze Bracket of the 12-team tournament on Saturday. The bracket semifinals will be at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. The Falcons, who have played five national top-25 teams in the first six matches, will take on No. 4-ranked Missouri-St. Louis. The other semi will match No. 17 Central Missouri against unranked Wheeling (WV).
 
The semifinal winners will play for the Bronze championship at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time. The losers play for third place at 3:30 p.m. Pacific.
 
Concordia St. Paul 3, Seattle Pacific 0
Down 14-9 in the first set, the Falcons strung together six consecutive points to take a 15-14 lead. Hair and Barnett factored into five of those six points: one kill for each of them and three combined blocks. From there, the set was tied at 15, 16, and 19. Concordia St. Paul ran off four straight to make it 23-19 and had triple set point at 24-21. SPU saved the first two of those on a tip by Anna Pelluer and an Emily Tulino service ace before the Bears closed it out with a kill.
 
Seattle Pacific jumped ahead early in Set 2 and stayed ahead, twice by as many as six points. It was still 19-15 when the Bears bounced back, putting five straight on the board to go up 20-19. The Falcons tied it at 20, 21, and 22. Concordia then scored the last three, capping a set-ending 10-3 comeback.
 
The Bears led for almost the entirety of Set 3. They were ahead 23-18 and on the brink of closing out the match when SPU made one final surge on a kill by Barnett, a tip by Allison Wilks, a Concordia attack error, and a kill by Erin Smith. That cut the margin to 24-22, forcing the Bears to call timeout. Claudia Stahlke finished it with her ninth kill of the night.
 
 

"I thought our team responded really well and played really hard and brought some good energy," head coach Jason Rhine said. "Our defensive strengths lined up with what Concordia was trying to do, and we ended up getting a lot of blocks and serving them tough and making it a really close match."
 
Hair and Barnett both played error-free: eight kills on 11 attacks for Hair (.727 hitting) and eight on 20 attacks for Barnett (.400). Hair logged a season-high seven blocks and Barnett had a career-high six.
 
"They were stepping up big on the blocking side, but they also had good one-on-one match-ups consistently on the attacking side," Rhine said. "They were an important part of our offense."
 
The Falcons had 27 total blocks, topping their previous high of 20.

"Concordia was trying to hit hard, but we had a really good block up," Rhine said. "So we ended up stopping them a good bit and causing some errors."

The Golden Bears are the defending tournament champions, and have won it eight times overall.
 
Lewis 3, Seattle Pacific 0
The Flyers (3-3) ran off 10 straight points early in the opening set, turning a 4-2 deficit into a 12-4 lead. SPU eventually got as close as four points twice, the last time at 22-18. Then Lewis, which hit .300 in that set with 16 kills to Seattle Pacific's nine, scored three of the last four points.
 
The Falcons yielded the first four points of Set 2, and were down by as many as six. Then at 24-19, they ran off five straight, the last four of those with sophomore libero Christina Lopez serving, to level it at 24-24. A kill by Hair got it started, followed by a Lewis attack error, a kill down the line by Sydney Perry, a tipped dunk by Allison Wilks on a service return overpass, and finally a kill by Erin Smith off a Lewis blocker for 24-24.
 
SPU saved set points at 25-24 (a combined block by Perry and Wilks), 26-25 (a Perry tip off a Flyers blocker) and 27-26 (a kill by Erin Smith).  Down 28-27, the Falcons thought they had tied it again at 28-28 when Hair found the floor. But just prior to that, they were called for a lift, giving the point and the set to Lewis.
 
The Flyers bolted to a 6-1 lead in Set 3. Seattle Pacific got within 6-3, then Lewis put four straight on the board for 10-3 and were in control the rest of the way.
 
Lopez, who was injured during a late preseason practice and did not play at last week's Yotes Classic Showcase in San Bernardino, had 24 digs in her season debut.
 
The Flyers had a 49-34 advantage in kills and hit .256 to SPU's .109.
 

NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Colorado Premier Challenge
Friday, Sept. 13, 2024
Regis Field House / Denver, Colo.
 
(No. 23) Lewis 3, Seattle Pacific 0
 
Game scores – 25-19, 29-27, 25-16.
 
Service aces – Lew 4 (4 players with 1), SPU 2 (Wilks 1, Pelluer 1).
Kills – Lew 49 (Stefanski 10), SPU 34 (Smith 8, Perry 8).
Assists – Lew 46 (King 24), SPU 33 (Tulino 16, Chambers 13).
Digs – Lew 57 (Alvey 13), SPU 58 (Lopez 24).
Block assists / solo – Lew 6 / 2 solo (Januski 1 / 2 solo), SPU 8 / 0 solo (Hair 4  / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – Lew 49-15-133—256 (Stafanski 10-0-21—476), SPU 34-21-119—109 (Hair 4-1-8—375).
Attendance – 83.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 0-5.   Lewis 3-3.
 
 
(No. 5) Concordia St. Paul 3, Seattle Pacific 0
 
Game scores – 25-23, 25-22, 25-22.
 
Service aces – SPU 1 (Tulino 1), CSP 6 (C. Sieling 3).
Kills – SPU 26 (Hair 8, Barnett 8), CSP 47 (E. Sieling 12).
Assists – SPU 26 (Tulino 13), CSP 45 (Starkey 44).
Digs – SPU 36 (Lopez 10), CSP 53 (Starkey 13).
Block assists / solo – SPU 26 / 1 solo (Hair 7 / 0 solo, Barnett 6 / 0 solo), CSP 6 / 2 solo (Stahlke 3 / 1 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 26-17-102—088 (Hair 8-0-11—727), CSP 47-29-115—157 (Straub 8-2-12-500.
Attendance – 98.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 0-6.   Concordia St. Paul 5-1.
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific vs. No. 4 Missouri St. Louis
Saturday, 8:00 a.m. PDT
Berce Athletic Center / Denver, Colo.
 
 
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