For the fifth straight year #5 concordia university (32-4) will be playing in the ncaa north central region championship match after a 3-0 (30-28, 30-15, 30-28) win over #11 southwest minnesota state (26-8) in the semifinals played in duluth, minn. They will face the #1-ranked bulldogs of minnesota duluth for the fourth straight year at 5:30 on saturday.

"it was a great match, we came out aggressive and ready to go," said head coach brady starkey.

the golden bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but it was southwest minnesota state who held a 25-21 advantage late in the first game. After a concordia timeout, the golden bears scored nine of the last 12 points to take game one 30-28.

"we felt like we stole one. We were ready to play five coming into tonight's match. We thought winning that one was a bonus," said starkey"

game two started with the two teams trading points. With the game tied 8-8, concordia went on a 12-2 run to take a commanding 20-10 lead and would go on to win the third game 30-15.

with the momentum on the golden bears side after winning the first two games, concordia started game three on a 6-0 run and led 10-2 at one point.

sophomore maggie mcnamara guided a golden bears offense that hit .317 as a team, with 59 kills compared to only 38 for the mustangs. Mcnamara finished the night with 50 assists, four digs and three service aces.

concordia was led by freshman emily palkert who tallied 17 kills, with only two errors in 31 attempts (.484). She would add seven blocks on the night.

junior maria steinhagen hit an impressive .562 with ten kills, only one error, in 16 attempts. whitney meierotto finished with 14 kills and ten digs, giving her 23 double-doubles on the season. Sophomore sadie kessler and senior kate bennett each had nine kills in the match.

the golden bear defense tallied 49 digs, compared to 40 for the mustangs. Sophomore mary slinger led the team with a match-high 20.

"concordia's ability to handle the ball off the serve receive and defensively was our downfall, so-to-speak," said southwest minnesota state head coach terry culhane. "they were able to keep the ball alive and keep the pressure on us."

concordia held smsu's senior all-american erin contons to just six kills in her last collegiate match with a -.059 hitting percentage in 34 attempts. The mustangs were led by leah ashburn with 12 kills, while krystal schwanke had seven.

the golden bears will face #1 minnesota duluth for the fourth straight time regional championship match to be played saturday at 5:30 with a chance to advance to the elite eight on the line.

"we will focus on our team working together," said steinhagen when asked on who she would prefer to play, umd or nebraska-omaha. "when we are focussed and all contribute, that is when we are most successful."

box score - csp 3, sw mn st. 0