BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Shelbi Chipman and Alison Pringle each posted double-digit kills, but the Concordia University Texas volleyball team fell to Texas Lutheran, 3-1, in its American Southwest Conference opener on Tuesday, Sept. 11 at the CTX Field House. Set scores were 25-23, 25-19, 21-25 and 25-21.

Concordia was in full control early in the first set and built up a 10-4 lead by getting a combined five service aces from Stacy Manship and Chipman. The Tornados stayed ahead for most of the stanza and had a 20-16 advantage until the Bulldogs started to rally. Texas Lutheran tied the score at 20s and 21s on CTX attacking errors before knotting the score again at 23s on a kill by Manda Martin. Another Tornado attacking error gave the Bulldogs their first lead since scoring the first point of the set, and a kill by Haley Lasseter sealed the tight 25-23 outcome.

The hosts once again opened up a commanding lead to start the second set. A kill by Pringle off a feed from Bianca Martinez made it 10-3 in favor of the Tornados. Texas Lutheran, however, recovered and scored 10 of the next 11 points to go ahead by a 13-11 score on a kill by Carlie Childres. Concordia regained the upper hand and was ahead 15-14 courtesy of a kill by Emma Clifford, but the visitors fought back again and scored three straight points to go up by two and never looked back.

Concordia (5-3, ASC 0-1) never trailed in the third set, scoring the first four points and seven of the first eight to prompt a Texas Lutheran timeout. A kill by Clifford built the advantage up to double digits at 16-6 before the Bulldogs made an attempt to rally and came as close as one point on consecutive aces by Alisia Briones. But he Tornados held off the Bulldogs the rest and won the set by a 25-21 score on a kill by Chipman to keep the game going.

The fourth set featured six ties and two lead changes. The teams stayed within one point of each other until a Tornado attacking error gave the Bulldogs a small 8-6 cushion. Despite being challenged by the Tornados, Texas Lutheran maintained that lead the rest of the way en route to taking the set by a 25-21 score as well as the match.

Chipman and Pringle contributed 11 and 10 kills, respectively, to lead Concordia in the losing effort. Pringle also added five blocks, while Chipman had eight digs and three aces. Manship fell just shy of a double-double with nine kills and 11 digs to go along with four service aces. Martinez had 33 assists and seven digs.

Lasseter paced three Bulldog players with double-digit kills by racking up 11 on .429 hitting. Marcia Sagebiel and Childres had 10 apiece, while Manda Martin finished the evening with 35 assists and eight digs.

Concordia will compete at a tournament hosted by Trinity this weekend, which begins with a match against Southwestern on Friday, Sept. 14 at 1 p.m.
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Texas Lutheran def. Concordia, 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21)