WOLVES END SEASON BY BLANKING CONCORDIA

Nov. 10, 2001

Going into the season finale at Concordia-St. Paul Saturday, the fourth- and fifth-place spots in the final Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings were in question.

When the match began however, the fourth-place Wolves erased all doubt, dominating the fifth-place Golden Bears 3-0 (30-25, 31-29, 30-27).

The match also served to help decide the conference champion and automatic NCAA II post-season berth between league-leaders Southwest State and Wayne State (Neb.). With SSU and WSC tied in the standings after sweeping their matches this weekend, the first tiebreaker was head-to-head competition, which the teams split. The next tiebreaker is how each team fared in the conference. Since Southwest split with Northern and Wayne split with Concordia, the tiebreaker went against Wayne, as their lowest loss came to No. 5 and SSU's to No. 4.

Senior Shanna Dahl (St. Cloud, Minn.) moved into fourth place on NSU's career total blocks chart, getting the needed two blocks to amass 392 for her career and pass Carly Evans, who totaled 391 during her career from 1995-97.

Junior Molly Veenhof (Huron) led the team on the night with 13 kills on a .522 hitting clip. Defensively, junior Stephanie Tschetter (Huron) led the way with 14 digs. Sophomore setter Tara Sauter (Belle Plaine, Minn.) totaled 36 assists and 11 digs. CSP (14-16, 10-8 NSIC) was led by Jill Kalvik's 14 kills.

The win ended NSU's season at 19-11 overall and 12-6 in the NSIC. The Wolves not only bettered their mark from last season, but also ended the year ranked ninth in the North Central Region. The top six region teams move onto NCAA II post-season play. The program earned its first-ever regional ranking early in the season and was ranked throughout the year, moving as high as seventh.