saint paul, minn. - the #1 golden bears (25-4, 19-0 nsic) clinched sole possession of the nsic title friday night as they swept the northern state wolves (14-14, 6-13 nsic) 25-20, 26-24, 25-17. Senior emily palkert became cu's all time points leader on the night with her 15 kills and three blocks. cassie haag led the team with 17 kills on the night and hit .519. Concordia extended their nsic regular season match winning streak to 71 and their home match winning streak to 48.
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concordia hit .328 on the evening as they were able to put away a feisty wolves effort. kayla koenecke had 11 kills on the night and was the third cu player to have double digit kills. Koenecke also had eight dig to help out the defense. Amanda konetchy had 51 assists for the golden bears to go along with eight digs as well. megan carlson led the team with 18 digs and taylor fieldsted was close behind with 15.

the golden bears and wolves played a tight first set as nsu only had one error in the first set. Cu got out midway through the set and had 13-9 lead, forcing a nsu timeout. Concordia extended the lead to 18-12 and ended up taking the set 25-20.

set two was even closer as no team had a lead bigger than three points. The match was tied at 19-19 as the wolves were came back on the golden bears. Cu and nsu traded a few points before cu took the set 26-24.

cu flexed their muscles in the third set as they took a 12-11 lead and turned into a 25-17 set victory. Cu hit .314 in the third set and was able to shut down the nsu offense holding them to .194 hitting.

concordia has now won the nsic every year under brady starkey. Cu will close out the regular season tomorrow evening as they face the university of mary in conference match. Cu will look to go undefeated in the nsic for the sixth time in eight years with a victory. Cu swept mary earlier in the season. The match will start 4 p.m. In the gangelhoff center and will feature a ceremony to recognize cu seniors krista erikson and emily palkert.