#6 concordia-st. Paul (16-2, 6-1 nsic) survived a late comeback by the university of mary (n.d.) (5-7, 2-5 nsic), defeating the marauders 30-17, 30-28, 27-30, 23-30, 18-16 in a tight match on friday evening in bismarck, n.d.

the golden bears easily easily captured the first game with a convincing 30-17 score, but the marauders fought for a tough second game loss, 30-28 in the second game. They carried the momentum by closing out csp 30-27 in game three before knotting the match at two, crusing in game four 30-23.

in the fifth game, the young golden bear squad battled and closed out the marauders on the road in front of 455 bismarck spectators.

statistically, the bears outshined u-mary holding decisive advantages in kills (72-57), service aces (11-6) and digs (82-72).

but concordia committed 14 more attack errors (42-28), five more blocking errors (6-1) and were outblocked (12-13.5) to keep u-mary in the match.

whitney meierotto led concordia, posting a double-double with a match-high 19 kills along with 11 digs.

emily palkert nearly achieved her first career double-double with 14 kills and nine blocks (one solo) despite posting a -.022 hitting pct., committing 15 errors in 45 attacks.

maria steinhagen and kate bennett rounded out the offensive leaders for the bears with 16 and 12 kills, respectively.

mary slinger's 24 digs paced the defense while krista erickson added 14 and rachel knutson chipped in with 13.

maggie mcnamara set the offense with 61 assists and added nine digs and four blocks (one solo).

the marauders out hit the bears .164 to .148 for the match.

concordia continues conference play tomorrow evening when they head south to aberdeen, s.d. To take on northern state university.

box score - csp 3, u-mary 2