Senior jessica lucia delivered 23 kills and 14 digs to lead #4 and top seeded concordia university (33-2) over fifth seeded northern state (17-13) in a three game sweep (30-28, 31-29, 30-28) in the nsic tournament semifinals at the gangelhoff center on friday evening.

the win extends cu's winning streak on the season to 17 matches and gives them a new single season school record of 33 wins, surpassing their mark set in 2003 (32-3) and 2004 (32-4). It also extends their winning streak against nsic opponents to 61 matches, the fourth longest streak in ncaa division ii volleyball history.

they advance to the nsic tournament championship match for the third straight year as they look to defend their back-to-back titles against #21 wayne state, the no. 2 seed, who defeated #23 sw minnesota state, the third seed, in the earlier semifinal match in a dramatic five game match. The championship match is a 7:00 p.m. Start at the gangelhoff center and will be broadcast by fox sports net north tape delayed on thursday, nov. 9 at 7:00.

it was a tight game between the wolves and golden bears, with all three games decided by the minimum of two points. In a dramatic second game finish, serving proved to be the catalyst that sparked a cu comeback. The bears trailed by four late (26-22) when freshman mary slinger drilled a pair of service aces to cut the deficit to one, 26-25 forcing a wolves timeout.

the wolves recorded a kill out of the timeout to regain a two point lead but lucia responded with a thundering kill. Then junior monica mcnamara pulled off her best slinger impersonation by drilling a pair of aces of her own to knot the score at 28.

after a pair of golden bear kills with a nsu point sandwiched in, it was only fitting when senior ashley olson closed out the second game with a decisive ace, giving cu five service aces in the final eight points while nsu had just a costly service error that started the ace barrage.

two other bears reached double-digit kills to supplement lucia's 23. Freshman raina hein posted a new career-high 12 kills while mo.mcnamara racked up 11.

the defense was led by senior libero megan graham's 18 digs. Four players reached double-digit digs for a defense that stifled the wolves attack. Joining graham and lucia in double-digit digs were freshman setter maggie mcnamara and olson with 11 and 10, respectively.

ma.mcnamara set the bears attack with 55 assists, an average of 18.3 per game to improve her nation-best average from 14.97 to 15.04 per game.

the wolves were led by emily knaeble with 16 kills, hitting .350 with seven digs and odemaris diaz with 15 kills and a .306 pct. Melanie perez recorded a match-high 23 digs for nsu.