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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia University volleyball team (20-1, 12-0 NSIC) heads off to North Dakota to take on the Minot State Beavers (9-12, 5-7 NSIC) and the University of Mary Marauders (4-15, 1-11 NSIC) this weekend. Concordia will look to add on to their best winning streak since 2011, which is currently at 18, in the two matches. Friday's match with Minot State starts at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday's match with U-Mary is set to begin at 4:00 p.m.
Concordia moved into sole possession of first place after their fifth consecutive weekend sweep to begin the conference season. Concordia took down Sioux Falls 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 on Friday and held the Cougars to just .107 hitting as a team. Saturday was much of the same as the Golden Bears took the three sets 25-15, 25-18, 25-16 and held the #6 SMSU Mustangs to an .092 attack percentage for the match.
Concordia began this week with a straight set win over the Minnesota State Mavericks, holding MSU to .080 hitting. Concordia has now won 18 straight matches overall and 26 straight regular season conference matches in a row.
Friday's match against the Minot State Beavers will be just their second meeting ever. Their first matchup came last season in MSU's first season in the NSIC. The Golden Bears won in straight sets in Minot and were led by Cassie Haag's 12 kills and Ellie Duffy's 10. Amanda Konetchy had 34 assists in the match.
Jen Dixon leads the Beavers with 266 kills (3.41 per set) and 233 digs (2.99 per set) and setter Emily Byrne has 667 assists (8.55 per set) on the season.
Saturday's matchup with the Mary Marauders is the 12th meeting between the two schools. CU has won the first 11 matches and have swept 10 of the 11. Back in 2007, the Marauders pushed the Golden Bears to five sets but were unable to get over the hump and get a win. Their last meeting came on October 13, 2012 in Bismarck. Kayla Koenecke had a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs and Amanda Konetchy put up 43 assists and 11 digs for her own double-double.
The Marauders are led by Alexis Jacobs' 185 kills (2.85) and Janell Finkbeiner's 410 assists (6.03 per set). Alex Brown has a team best 245 digs (3.71 per set).
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