(Sept. 13, 2009 - Defiance, Ohio) -- The Concordia volleyball team cruised to two early victories on day one of the Defiance Invitational only to be swept the following day to finish the weekend 2-2 moving their overall record to 9-6. After dispensing quickly both Siena Heights and Marygrove on Friday in six sets, the Cards fell in a five-set heartbreaker to Huntington College on Saturday morning before falling to the host YellowJackets in straight sets to end their weekend.

Over the four matches, Ashley Hart (So. - Birmingham, Mich.) continued her blazing hot start to finish with 45 kills with two solo blocks and 27 block assists.

Katie Matz (Fr. - Livonia, Mich.) had one of her strongest performances of her young career to finish second in kills for the weekend with 28 with also finishing right behind Hart in block assists with 19. Matz had a dozen digs to boot.

Samantha Cuppen (Sr. - Port Huron, Mich.) and Danielle Guss (So. - Lambertville, Mich.) added 26 and 24 kills for the weekend while Rachel Compton (Sr. - Whitmore Lake, Mich.) had 134 assists over the four matches.

Defensively, Concordia was lead by Ashley Zair's (Sr. - West Bloomfield, Mich.) 52 digs with Shilo Stewart (Sr. - Brighton, Mich.) adding 42 and 29 from Guss.

After snapping a three-game losing streak with the pair of wins on Friday, Concordia will try to snap their two-game skid with a pair of conference matches this week. On Tuesday, the Cardinals will host the University of Michigan-Dearborn before heading down the road to Madonna University on Thursday.

The Wolves from UM-Dearborn will enter struggling on the season losing their last three with a 2-8 overall record. Conversely, few are as hot as the Crusaders are as Madonna is currently 11-1 overall on the season.