Volleyball | 11.5.14
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (23-4, 16-2 NSIC) finishes off the regular season this weekend as they travel to take on MSU Moorhead (10-16, 5-13 NSIC) and Northern State (18-8, 11-7 NSIC).
THE MATCHUPS... The Golden Bears are facing off against the Dragons for the 33rd time in the schools' history on Friday. CU is 24-8 overall against MSUM and 24-1 in the last 25 meetings. Concordia has won nine straight dating back to November 9, 2007 when MSU Moorhead knocked off the Golden Bears in four sets. CU swept the only meeting of the season back on Sept. 20th in St. Paul. The Golden Bear offense was rolling all afternoon as they hit .394 as a team and held the Dragons to just .146.
Riley Hanson had 16 kills and a .481 attack percentage along with three total blocks.
Anna Schlaak was the only other Golden Bear in double figures in kills with 13 as she also added six digs.
Taylor Dordan led CU with 12 digs and chipped in two aces as well.
The Golden Bears take on the Northern State Wolves in Aberdeen their 36th matchup in the all-time series. Concordia leads the series 28-7 and has won all 26 meetings since a four set Wolves win on November 8, 2002 in Aberdeen. Last season, the Golden Bears met the Wolves three times and picked up sweeps in each meeting. Back on Sept. 19th, the Wolves took CU to five sets but Concordia came out on top.
Anna Schlaak was fed the ball consistently throughout the night as she had a team-best 17 kills along with eight digs.
Riley Hanson was stellar for CU as she had 15 kills on an efficient .560 hitting along with three blocks.
LAST TIME OUT... Concordia dropped a thrilling four set match to the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs on Tuesday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
Minnesota Duluth snuck past in a grind-it-out defensive battle as they slightly edged CU in the hitting percentage category at .190 compared to Concordia's .180. The Golden Bears held statistical advantages in several key categories as they lead 10.0-7.0 in blocks, 4-2 in aces and committed 25 attack errors while the Bulldogs committed 34.
Riley Hanson was a major impact player for the Golden Bears yet again as she finished the match with a team-high 16 kills and five blocks while hitting .378.
NATIONAL RANKS... The Golden Bears have had another excellent season with the second-ranked hitting percentage in the country at .307. CU also ranks in the top-5 in assists at 13.81 and kills per set at 14.67. A few individuals also rank highly as
Riley Hanson leads the nation in hitting percentage at .417.
Kasey Williams ranks fifth in the country with 12.20 assists per set while
Heather Schiller ranks 27th with 1.14 blocks per set.
RANKED OPPONENTS... The Golden Bears enter the weekend having faced nine ranked opponents this season. CU holds a 7-3 record in those six matches while going 3-3 in matches against ranked opponents inside the top-10. Their wins have come against #4 BYU-Hawaii, #5-7 SMSU (twice), #12 WSC, #17 Wheeling Jesuit, #20 Augie and #21 NSU and the losses were to #2 Tampa and #2 Minnesota Duluth (twice).
