Volleyball | 10.14.15
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-3, 8-1 NSIC) will look to continue their eighth-match winning streak this weekend on the road as they travel to #6 Northern State (17-0, 9-0 NSIC) on Friday and MSU Moorhead (11-6, 4-5 NSIC) on Saturday.
Please note that Saturday's match at MSU Moorhead will start at 5 p.m.
THE MATCHUPS... The Golden Bears head into Friday's match with a record of 29-7 in 36 meetings with Northern State. Concordia has owned the series since 2003 as they have won the last 27 matchups between the two schools. In 14 meetings in Aberdeen, CSP has gone 10-4 and CSP has won all four meetings in which NSU has been ranked in the top-25 overall.
Last season, CSP won both contests in five sets between the Golden Bears and the Wolves. In the meeting in Aberdeen, Concordia battled back from a 2-0 deficit to knock off Northern State in the regular season finale on Saturday night. The Golden Bears stormed back to win the final three sets to win their final NSIC match of the regular season.
Anna Schlaak was dominant in the win as she put up 24 kills and 12 digs in the win.
Saturday's match between Concordia and MSU Moorhead is the 34th meeting in the all-time series, with CSP going 25-8 in previous meetings. After losing the first seven in the series, the Golden Bears have won the last 25 in a row. The Dragons have pushed CSP to four sets in two of the last three meetings.
Concordia won both meetings last season, including a four-set win in Moorhead in the last weekend of the year. In that win, The Golden Bears nearly doubled up the Dragons in efficiency as they hit .333 compared .168 for MSUM. CU continued their dominance at the net as they collected 12.0 blocks while MSU Moorhead had 6.0.
Anna Schlaak went 20-10 in the match with 20 kills and 10 digs to go along with a .457 hitting percentage.
LAST TIME OUT... The Golden Bears went 3-0 last week with a four set win on the road at UMD before sweeping both U-Mary and Minot State at home over the weekend.
The Golden Bear attack remained red hot as they hit .365 over the three matches, including .532 in Saturday's win against Minot State. The Concordia defense was nearly as impressive as they held their opponents to a .142 mark over the week.
Emma Lange was extremely efficient on the week as she hit .542 for the week with team-best 3.70 kills per set. She showed some consistency as she had at least 10 kills and a .391 hitting percentage in all three matches. She was especially impressive on Saturday as Lange hit an incredible .875 with a match-best 14 kills on just 16 attempts. The junior fell just short of qualifying for the school record, but would have ranked second in program history with her .875 hitting percentage.
NCAA STATISTICAL LEADERS... With the team entering the week riding high, several players have worked their way up the ranks statistically on the national level.
Heather Schiller went into Tuesday night's match ranking fourth in the nation with 1.42 blocks per set with
Kasey Williams also registering in at fourth in assists per set at 12.11. As a team, CSP ranks fifth in assists per set (13.65), seventh in kills per set (14.35), 10th in hitting percentage (.272) and 14th in blocks per set (2.48)as well.
