#6 concordia university (29-2) extended their winning streak to 13 matches with a decisive four game victory (30-21, 25-30, 30-26, 30-26) over #4 minnesota duluth (24-3) in front of an overflowing gangelhoff center with 1,219 fans in attendance on tuesday evening. The contest pitted the top-two teams in the region as umd was ranked first while the bears were second.

the victory pushes concordia's home winning streak to 24 matches and cu improves to 9-2 against teams ranked in the avca top 25. It is their fourth win over a top ten opponent.

the bears were led by sophomore maria steinhagen, who was unstoppable for much of the contest, posting 14 kills while hitting a match-high .355, committing just three attack errors in 31 total attacks. Steinhagen was just as powerful at the net on the defensive side, posting nine blocks (two solo).

senior jessica lucia posted her 16th double-double of the season and fifth in a row with 19 kills and 15 digs. Her 19 kills propeled her over 1,500 career kills, becoming the third player in school history to reach the milestone. She also added four assists, three blocks and a crucial service ace.

in the pivotal third game, lucia drilled her serve just inches over the net on a play that handcuffed umd's kari wolford, who was unable to dig the serve. On the next point, lucia drilled the same serve right at wolford. Wolford was able to dig the serve, but it took off on a line drive over the net right to senior kelsey kyro, who spiked the ball for the kill. The two points gave cu a 10-7 lead in the game and umd couldn't recover as cu opened up a 19-12 lead on freshman setter maggie mcnamara's serve as the bears rallied for six consecutive points.

in the clinching fourth game, cu carried their third game momentum over as they opened up a 12-5 lead. But the bulldogs stormed back to take a 22-19 lead and appeared to steal the momentum back.

then ma.mcnamara returned to serve after a kill by her older sister, monica. On her first serve, ma.mcnamara drilled a service ace that umd's danielle beckstrand couldn't handle. The bears would go on a five point run to steal the lead - and the momentum - back for concordia at 24-22. Umd was unable to re-tie the score as the bears coasted for the victory.

the cu defense stifled the bulldogs early, holding them to a .083 attack pct. In the first game and a .136 pct. For the match. The golden bears completely shut down bulldog all-american vicky braegelmann as she hit -.030 with only eight kills in 33 attacks with nine errors.

the defensive effort was led by senior libero megan graham's 20 digs followed by lucia's 15 and senior ashley olson's 14. Prior to the match, graham was honored for eclipsing 2,000 career digs when she posted 29 against wayne state last friday evening.

the golden bear blocking dominated with a 13-6 edge at the net. Cu's serve also played a key role in the win as the bears had nine service aces.

cu's offensive attack saw four players reach double-digit kills as monica mcnamara had 13 kills while kyro had 12. Kyro also had four blocks while mo.mcnamara had three along with five digs and two aces.

ma.mcnamara tallied 52 assists and narrowly missed a double-double with nine digs. She also had a pair of aces and a block. Freshman mary slinger matched her nine digs.

a key player who didn't fill the stat sheet was junior transfer kate bennett, who was in the lineup primarily to serve. In the first three games, the bears were unable to register a point on any of bennett's serve attempts. But in the fourth game, bennett came in after a kyro kill and quickly sparked the bears to six unanswered points to jump out to a 12-5 lead. She had a pair of aces during the run.

the golden bears have two more regular season matches remaining this weekend when they travel to northern state on friday and u-mary (nd) on saturday to close out their nsic schedule.