Weekend Sweep Leads To MIAC Award Sweep
The Cobbers swept their two matches over the weekend and Kaia Lill and Mallory Leitner swept the MIAC Player of the Week honors on Monday.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/23/23)---It was a sweep for Concordia in its conference matches over the weekend, and it was a clean sweep for the Cobbers for the weekly MIAC Player of the Week honors.
Senior Kaia Lill (Bismarck, N.D./Bismarck Century HS) was named the MIAC Specialty Player of the Week, and sophomore Mallory Leitner (Dilworth, Minn./Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton HS) earned MIAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
It is the third time this season that one team has swept the conference weekly awards. Lill earns her second MIAC Specialty Player of the Week honor, while Leitner comes away with her first conference weekly award. Lill also earned the award on Sept. 25.
The two players helped Concordia record wins over St. Catherine and Augsburg on Friday and Saturday, which allowed the Cobbers move from a 4-way tie for fifth place in the league standings to a 3-way tie for third place. Concordia is now in a prime position to secure one of the six MIAC playoff spots with three matches left in the regular season.
Lill recorded a career-high 58 assists in the Cobbers' five-set win over Bethel on Friday and then led the offense in a sweep over Augsburg on Saturday.
The 58 assists against the Royals marked the second time this season, and fifth in her career, that she has eclipsed the 50-assist mark. Against the Auggies, Lill's ability to get the ball to the Concordia frontline attackers helped produce a .300 attack percentage, the team's best mark in conference play this season.
Lill has 905 assists in the Cobbers' 24 overall matches and has posted 307 helpers against league opponents. Her 307 assists in conference play lead the MIAC.
Leitner led the Cobbers in kills in both matches over the weekend. She had 19 kills and hit a career-best .429 in the team's win over Bethel and then had 12 kills and hit .258 in the sweep over Augsburg. Leitner totaled 31 kills and hit .356 in 73 total attacks for the weekend and has now posted a double-digit kill total in five of the team's last six MIAC matches.
Leitner has jumped into the Top 11 in kills in both conference and overall matches. She leads the team against MIAC opponents with 96 winners, sixth in the MIAC. Leitner is second on the team in kills in all matches. She is No.11 on the MIAC list with 250 kills.