Omaha Concordia Hands D2 #1 Wynot First Loss of Season
Omaha Concordia’s Emily Otten (14) attacks against the block of Wynot’s Whitney Hochstein (18) and Shaelee Planer (9) during Saturday’s match in Omaha. Otten had 18 kills as Concordia won 3-1. (Photo by Berk Brown) OMAHA – Wynot, the top-ranked…
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Continue ReadingOmaha Concordia’s Emily Otten (14) attacks against the block of Wynot’s Whitney Hochstein (18) and Shaelee Planer (9) during Saturday’s match in Omaha. Otten had 18 kills as Concordia won 3-1. (Photo by Berk Brown)
OMAHA – Wynot, the top-ranked team in Class D2, put its perfect record on the line against Class C1 Omaha Concordia on Saturday afternoon, and while the Blue Devils left with a loss, the team also made a strong case for why it’s the best D2 team in the state.
Omaha Concordia won the match 25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 in a match that more competitive as it went on Saturday. The win boosted Omaha Concordia to 6-15 and dropped Wynot to 13-1 on the season.
Senior Emily Otten had a team-high 18 kills for Concordia while Lily Meyer had six. Abby Kulus had 20 digs for the Mustangs and Maddie Hansen and Meyer each had 17 assists.
Here are the main takeaways from the match.
1.) If I’m Wynot, I’m actually feeling really good about things despite leaving with the loss. It clearly took a set or set-and-a-half for Wynot to get comfortable on the court and get into a rhythm, but as the scores indicate in the final two sets, it was a really competitive match once the Blue Devils got settled in.
In some senses, not having the extra pressure of being an undefeated team heading into the end of the season can be nice. I can state for sure, as well, that Wynot is not going to face a team with the serving and attacking ability of Concordia when it gets into the D2 postseason until – maybe – the state semifinals. And having that kind of experience with a long bus ride, larger gym and athletic and balanced opponent is really going to pay off for Wynot come November.
2.) Don’t look at Omaha Concordia’s 6-15 record and pass some kind of judgement on the Mustangs. First, Rick Hughes is an outstanding coach and anytime a Class C1 program loses a pair of players to Division I college programs – where they are both playing a lot as freshmen, by the way, – there is going to be a little bit of a rebuild going on. But, despite that, this is still a very good Concordia team with a very deceiving record.
Let me drop this little tidbit on you when talking about Omaha Concordia. Of the 21 matches the Mustangs have played this season, 19 of them have been against teams that currently have a winning record. And of their 15 losses, a good chunk have come against some of the best teams in the state – such as Skutt Catholic, Millard North, Millard South, Omaha Duchesne, Wahoo (twice), Broken Bow, Lincoln Lutheran and Columbus Scotus. And with a difficult schedule still remaining, the Mustangs’ record might now be that great heading into postseason, but it is going to be a well-prepared team and tough out against anyone.
3.) Wynot returned pretty much everyone from its state semifinal team of last year and the Blue Devils have some really good talent that competed well with a talented Concordia team. Whitney Hochstein is a legitimate 6’0, 6’1 left right side for Wynot that can really pound the ball. She reminds me a little of Kylie Belt, who was a standout at Emerson-Hubbard a few years back and went to Midland University. She puts up a real nice block as well. Karley Heimes is a real athletic sophomore outside hitter for the Blue Devils as well at 5’11 and their setter combination of Emersyn Sudbeck and Edyn Sudbeck is really solid. Wynot probably gave up 2-3 points a set on double contacts, however, but that is to be expected when a D2 teams travels into Omaha and gets refs that have a different standard for that. Really liked the way Noelle Wieseler manned the back row as libero for Wynot as well.
4.) I’m kind of repeating myself here, but don’t count out Omaha Concordia for making a run in the postseason no matter what its record is. Despite the fact that there is a ton of talent and depth in the class, I can still see a route to the state tournament for the Mustangs. Concordia finds itself in the C1-1 subdistrict, which is certainly winnable for the Mustangs. The other three teams in the subdistrict are Omaha Roncalli (10-10), Fort Calhoun (9-11) and Omaha Brownell-Talbot (9-8). Concordia currently has the second-highest wild-card total in that subdistrict. And while Concordia might be one of the lowest seeds in the round of 16 even if it does win that subdistrict, there is a chance it could wind-up facing Chadron (18-3 and third in NSAA wild card points). A good indicator of how Concordia might fare against Chadron is coming up in the Centennial Conference this week. Chadron defeated Kearney Catholic 2-1, so if Concordia would face the Stars, there would be that common opponent to compare against.