#3 concordia university (28-3, 16-1 nsic) clinched their fifth straight northern sun regular season title as they swept northern state (13-14, 8-9 nsic), 30-26, 30-21, 30-21 on friday evening at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul, minn.

junior maria steinhagen led the golden bears to victory with 20 kills in 34 attempts with just two errors to hit .529 for the match. She was the only concordia hitter to reach double-digits in kills for the match.

concordia and northern state played a tight first game with the wolves leading 18-15 midway through the opening game. But concordia would rally for seven consecutive points behind junior whitney meierotto's serve and two steinhagen kills.

leading 22-18, concordia would also open up a 27-20 lead before taking the first game 30-26.

the wolves started strong in the second game as well, opening up a 16-10 lead on concordia. But trailing 17-12, cu scored seven consecutive points once again to claim the lead behind the strong serve of freshman krista erickson and two more steinhagen kills.

it was all concordia from there as they marched to the conference championship with back-to-back 30-21 wins to close out the match.

sophomore maggie mcnamara finished with 41 assists and seven digs and led the concordia offense to a team .246 hitting pct. Sophomore mary slinger paced the defense with 17 digs while erickson had 15 and meierotto added 14.

freshman emily palkert was stout at the net with five blocks including three solo.

the golden bears have earned the top seed in the nsic tournament and will host a first round match on tuesday, november 11 at 7 p.m. At the gangelhoff center. They will take on the eigth-seeded bemidji state beavers.

if concordia advances, they will host the semifinal and championship rounds for the fourth time in the fourth year of the conference tournament.

box score - csp 3, northern state 0