#3 concordia-st. Paul (30-3), the top seed in the nsic tournament, defeated the no. 8 seed bemidji state (10-17) in three games (30-15, 30-28, 30-22) in the first round of the tournament behind the strong play of emily palkert and maria steinhagen on tuesday evening at the gangelhoff center in st. Paul, minn.

palkert drilled 17 kills while steinhagen hammered 15 and the duo hit .429 and .440 respectively to lead an attack that hit .290 as a team. Steinhagen was also a force at the net with six blocks (one solo).

they came out strong in the first game as steinhagen had eight kills in 11 attempts without an error (.727) while palkert drilled seven kills in nine error-free attempts (.778). Concordia hit .526 in the first game as a team with 22 kills in 38 attempts with just two errors.

bemidji state rallied in the second game and held a 26-20 lead and were on the verge of tying the match until the golden bears went on a 7-1 run to tie the score at 27. They finished the second game on a 10-2 run to take the second game.

the offensive attack was set by maggie mcnamara who registered 46 assists while adding eight digs and three blocks on defense. The attack was rounded out with nine kills from kate bennett, eight by raina hein and seven by sadie kessler.

the defensive effort produced a 50-39 advantage in digs and an 8-5 edge in blocks. mary slinger posted a match-high 15 digs and tied krista erickson for a team-best three service aces as the golden bears aced the beavers eight times, with kessler providing the other two.

erickson also notched 11 digs for concordia.

the victory puts concordia at the 30 win mark for the fifth straight season in head coach brady starkey's fifth season.

the golden bears will play host to the nsic tournament championship rounds for the fourth consecutive time, starting with the semifinal round on friday, november 9. Concordia will face the msu moorhead/winona state winner at 7:30 p.m. On friday.

the championship match will be played saturday, november 10 at 7:00 p.m. And will be aired on fox sports net north on a tape delay on tuesday, november 20 at 7 p.m.

box score - csp 3, bemidji state 0