saint paul, minn. - the #6 golden bears were able to act revenge on the #2 southwest minnesota state mustangs, saturday afternoon in a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 27-25, 25-23). The cu defense was able to hold the mustangs to .203 match hitting percentage and had 67 digs to control the hitters, taylor fieldsted led the way with 20. emily palkert led the way the 18 kills. Concordia improves to 12-0 in league play (17-4 overall), dropping smsu to 9-2 (17-3 overall). box score | photos

the golden bears jumped out early in set one getting up 10-4 and forcing a smsu timeout. Cu forced another timeout with a 16-8 lead. Concordia controlled the rest of the set and hit .432 to win set one 25-15. Palkert had 10 kills alone in the first set.

in set two both teams played good defense and held each other in check throughout most of the set. Cu got their first extended lead at 17-13 forcing a mustangs timeout. The mustangs came right back following the timeout and took a 19-18 lead. Cu took a 24-22 lead but the mustangs rallied again and tied the match at 24 and again at 25. An attack error by smsu gave cu the set two win 27-25.

it was a nail biter again in set three but at the start of the set concordia looked like they were in cruise control jumping out 12-6. The mustangs used three cu attack errors to cut the lead to 15-12 and were within one at 16-15. Smsu tied the match at 23 but a smsu attack error and a kayla koenecke kill gave the golden bears the match winning set three 25-23.

concordia got 11 kills from cassie haag with zero errors and eight kills and 19 digs from megan carlson. amanda konetchy had 44 assists and seven digs.

the golden bears will be on the road next weekend to take on bemidji state friday night and minnesota duluth saturday.

photos by justin oakman photography