mankato, minn. - the #6 golden bears have now won 55 straight regular season nsic matches as they disposed of the #12 minnesota state mavericks 3-1 (16-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-20) on tuesday night in a defensive battle. Concordia (8-3, 3-0) had 76 digs in the match and held the mavericks to a .188 hitting percentage. Three separate golden bears had at least 17 digs. taylor fieldsted lead the way with 22, followed by megan carlson's 20 and and kayla koenecke's 17.

the offensive was just as spread out as the defense, five different players had double digit kills. emily palkert lead the way with 16, koenecke was second with 11. Carlson, cassie haag and kara pioske each had ten. Palkert also added five blocks in the match. amanda konetchy had 49 assists in the victory for the golden bears.

the mavericks came out in the first set on a mission looking to make cu know they were ready to compete taking a 4-1 lead. Concordia weathered the early attack and took a 7-5 lead. The teams battled back in fourth as cu kept a two point lead at 11-9. Minnesota state came back with stampede and scored seven straight points to take a 16-11 lead. The mavericks kept the lead the rest of the set and ran away 25-16. Cu hit a dismal - .029 in the first set with only eight kills.

cu was ready to go in set two making sure that they would not be embarrassed on the road, and took an early 8-4 lead. The mavericks kept up the pressure up and got back within one at 10-9. The golden bears got some more breathing room when they took a 15-11 lead. Cu kept it up and lead 20-15 late in the set. Msu got within one again at 23-22, the two teams traded points but cu got the upper hand winning set two 25-23. Cu was again out hit in the set but did improve to a .250 hitting percentage with 18 kills.

the golden bears came out with a roar in the third set and scored the first five points. Cu extended the lead to 11-2. Concordia got out to its biggest lead at 23-12, the mavericks did their best to make it a game and scored six out the next seven points to get within six at 23-17. Cu held on on for 25-18 set win, they hit an amazing .472 with zero errors in the third set.

msu got on the board quickly in the fourth set and took an early 3-0 lead. Cu tied it up at eight a piece and the teams traded a few points. Mankato got a lead at 12-9 forcing a cu timeout. Concordia used the timeout to gather themselves and took their first lead of the set at 14-13. Concordia forced a msu timeout with an 18-14 lead and forced a second timeout when they extended it to a 21-16 lead. Cu took a 23-16 lead before msu cut it to 23-20 forcing a concordia timeout. Brady starkey inspired his team to take the next two points and win the set 25-20, wrapping up a nice victory for the golden bears. Neither team hit well in the set, cu out hit the mavericks .143 - .025.

concordia will be home for the first time this weekend as they take on minnesota crookston, friday at 7 p.m. And msu - moorhead at 4 p.m. On saturday. Come to the gangelhoff to watch the golden bears in action for the first time since cu won their third straight national title there last december.