DULUTH, Minn. - The fourth-ranked Concordia University volleyball team (10-3, 4-2 NSIC) dropped a four set match to sixth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (14-1, 5-1 NSIC) in a key early season Northern Sun matchup. UMD won by scores of 25-20, 21-25, 25-22 and 25-17.

Cassie Haag (Plymouth, Minn. ) led all Golden Bears with 15 kills while hitting .565.

The Golden Bears are now 15-21 all-time against UMD and 7-10 at Romano Gymnasium. It was Concordia's first loss in Duluth since October 30, 2007, a five set contest during the Golden Bears' first NCAA Championship season. The loss snapped a streak of five straight wins by the Golden Bears in Duluth. Concordia is now 10-2 against UMD in their last 12 meetings dating back to November 17, 2007.

The two teams will meet again this year in St. Paul at Gangelhoff Center on election night, Tuesday, November 6 in a non-conference match at 7 p.m.

The last time the Golden Bears started a season 10-3 in their first 13 matches was the 2010 season, in which they were 5-3 in their first eight matches and 10-4 in their first 14 before winning their final 22 matches of the year to capture a fourth consecutive NCAA Championship.

It's just the second time in Brady Starkey's 10 seasons that the Golden Bears have dropped two conference matches, the other time coming last year in an 18-2 season in which they split the title with UMD. Last year, UMD was one of the two teams to defeat Concordia in league play as well.

In tonight's match, the Bulldogs were able to outlast the Golden Bears in a tight match that featured 22 ties and 12 lead changes. The first three sets had 21 ties and 12 lead changes before UMD pulled away in the decisive fourth set.

The first set was tight early on until UMD rallied from a 9-8 deficit to take a commanding 18-10 lead with Concordia's only point coming on a Katie Ledwell service error.

In the second set, UMD pulled ahead early, 12-8 until Concordia responded with an 8-1 rally including six straight points on Kayla Koenecke (Delano, Minn. ) serve. Koenecke finished with 14 kills and seven digs while hitting .345 in 29 attempts for the Golden Bears.

UMD would respond, though, getting a 21-19 lead on a kill by Kate Lange, who led all players with 25 kills on the evening, taking a match-high 57 swings with only six errors.

But after a timeout by Concordia, the Golden Bears put the Bulldogs away with six unanswered points to even the match at one apiece as Lange committed three of her six errors on the night during the final four points of the set, including a block assist by Koenecke and Katie Habeck (Farmington, Minn. ) to seal the set.

In the third set, the home Bulldogs once again got out to a strong start in front of their strong crowd of over 1,100 fans. they rallied for a 15-9 lead after a 9-2 run.

Concordia came back to tie the score at 19-all, and would force another tie at 21 on a kill by Habeck.

But Lange answered with a kill for UMD as they scored four of the final five points of the set to take the 2-1 lead.

In set four, UMD broke a 7-7 tie with four straight points and never let the lead go. In fact, UMD extended the lead to 20-12 as they kept the lead at four or more the rest of the way.

Outside of Haag and Koenecke, Concordia hit just .130. The team finished at .264 for the evening. They hit above .300 in just one of the sets (set two) while UMD posted opening and closing set attack percentages of .371 and .372, respectively.

Concordia will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon with a 3 p.m. match at St. Cloud State.