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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #1 Concordia Golden Bears (13-1, 5-0 NSIC) is set to face off against Minnesota Crookston (6-7, 1-4 NSIC) and Bemidji State (5-8, 1-4 NSIC) this weekend for a pair of conference matchups. Concordia comes in playing well, having won 11 straight overall and 19 straight in NSIC regular season play.
Concordia improved to 13-1 and 5-0 in NSIC play with a 3-0 week with wins over Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State. Friday's win over #1 UMD improved the Golden Bears record against top ranked teams to 7-0 during their championship run. The week started with a sweep of Minnesota State before Friday's five set thriller with Minnesota Duluth. Concordia capped off the week with another sweep over St. Cloud State to extend their NSIC regular season winning streak to 19 and overall winning streak to 11.
The Golden Bears meet the Golden Eagles for the 26th time dating back to 1996. Concordia has won 23 in a row over UMC after dropping the first three matches. Minnesota Crookston's last win over Concordia came back on October 29, 1999. CU has only dropped one set to the Golden Eagles since then, back on October 26, 2002.
UMC is coming off a 1-2 week in which they knocked off the Beavers last Tuesday in five sets at home. The Golden Eagles dropped a pair of matches to Upper Iowa and Winona State to finish out the week. Brittany Looker leads Minnesota Crookston with 175 kills (3.65 per game) and Sierra Trost has picked up 455 assists (9.68 per game).
Concordia is 25-8-1 all-time against Bemidji State. CU has also won 23 in a row against the Beavers. The last BSU win in the series came back on November 3, 2001 in Bemidji. Concordia was 0-6-1 in the first seven matches before picking up their first win over Bemidji State.
BSU also went 1-2 for the week, dropping the Tuesday match to Minnesota Crookston and a Friday match in Winona before knocking off Upper Iowa on Saturday in Fayette. Bemidji State came from behind to take the last two sets on Saturday to pick up the five set win. Jessica Yost has a team-high 159 kills (3.18 per game) and Amanda Tronick has added 125 kills (2.50 per game) of her own.
Follow the matches online via the links at the top of the page.
