st. Paul, minn. - the concordia university (33-0) volleyball team kicked its play into high gear to get past wayne state college (29-8) and make a 7th straight appearance in the central region championship round. The squad still has an unblemished 33-0 record and has now won 70 straight matches, an ncaa record. They play for the region title saturday at 7:00 pm, taking on a hot metro state college team. box score

the golden bears' play tonight was described succinctly by head coach brady starkey when he said, "we played awesome. From the first point to game point."

the team hit .364 on the evening, had 11 team blocks, served up six aces and committed only one receiving error. They held a very solid wayne state squad to just .018 hitting, four blocks and six receiving errors. No wildcat hitters put up more than eight kills on the night.

"it came down to a serve and pass battle," said wayne state head coach scott kneifl. "they forced us out of system and pretty much played flawless tonight."

senior rightside hitter sadie kessler had a match high 13 kills and a .650 hitting average (13-0-20), just one of many golden bear hitters who absolutely pummeled the ball this evening. Rookie cassie haag had another standout night, putting down 12 kills with a .476 average.

crediting her success to senior setter maggie mcnamara (zumbrota, minn.), haag said, "maggie is incredible. Sometimes she gets you the ball when you don't expect it, so you always have to be ready. It's something that i've worked on all year and i'm finally learning that."

defense was also a key to the win, as the wildcats have been one of the best hitting teams in the nsic this year. Expecting wayne state to be firing away at them, senior libero mary slinger (faribault, minn.), who led the team with 17 digs, said, "they (wsc) are very strong and smart hitters. Tali fredrickson is especially smart, and so is jennifer hefner. But we knew what to expect and our blocking was fantastic tonight. Huge kudos to them (blockers)."

emily palkert (jr., mb, excelsior, minn.) came out in a big way at the net for concordia. She had her hand in seven of the team's 11 blocks on the night. Outside hitter ellie duffy (so., fridley, minn.) contributed with five blocks.

the wildcats took eight kills from hefner and seven from fredrickson. Setter diedra artz had 20 assists on the team's 24 kills. Leigh connot had a team high 11 digs for her squad.