Volleyball | 10.21.15

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #4 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-4, 10-2 NSIC) returns home for a big NSIC weekend with St. Cloud State (8-12, 4-8 NSIC) coming to town on Friday night and #8 Minnesota Duluth (16-5, 9-3 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.

TEAM IMPACT... On Friday, there will be two very special guests in attendance at the volleyball match, two children from Team IMPACT. Team IMPACT is an organization that improves the quality of life for children facing life-threatening illnesses through the power of team. This is done by matching these courageous kids with local athletic teams. Team IMPACT children are drafted and become an official member of the team while the student-athletes join the child's support team. The child gains great strength, camaraderie and support and the student athletes are taught lessons about courage, resiliency and life perspective that they can't learn in a classroom.
 
The Concordia baseball team will officially draft Garrett, a 12-year old from Elk River on to their team while women's basketball will draft 13-year-old Talitha. These two will be welcomed to the Golden Bear family with a special presentation between sets 2 and 3.

ROAST THE DOGS... Saturday afternoon marks the annual Roast the Dogs night as the Golden Bears meet the Bulldogs. Roast the Dogs is the annual hot dog cookout on the Gangelhoff Plaza beginning at 3 p.m. In addition to hot dogs being available outside (first come, first served), the first 100 Comet's Crazies (with a CSP ID) will receive a Roast the Dogs t-shirt upstairs in the Gangelhoff Center starting at 3:40 p.m.

THE MATCHUPS... The Golden Bears have fared well against St. Cloud State, holding a 21-1 advantage in their 22 meetings.  St, Cloud State's only win against the Golden Bears came back in their first ever meeting in 1975. Concordia had swept 11 consecutive matches before last season's meetings.

Last season, CSP won in four sets at St. Cloud in their 21st consecutive win over the Huskies. The Golden Bear attack showed flashes of dominance as they hit .421 in the first set and .455 in the fourth set as they finished the match with a .279 hitting percentage. The defense limited the Huskies to a .126 hitting percentage as they won the battle at the net again tonight with 12 total blocks compared to just two for SCSU. Riley Hanson collected a match-best 19 kills with just two errors to go along with an extremely efficient hitting percentage at .472. She also contributed three blocks as well.

Saturday's match between Concordia and Minnesota Duluth marks the 46th meeting between the two schools, with UMD holding a 25-20 edge in the series. After Minnesota Duluth won the first 11 meetings in the series up until 2003, Concordia has edged the Bulldogs with 19 wins in the last 33 meetings. Their most impressive stretch came from 2007 until 2010 as CSP strung together eight straight wins during that span.

Back on October 6th, the then-#3 Golden Bears knocked off then-#1 Minnesota Duluth in four sets. The Golden Bears improved to 11-0 all-time against teams ranked #1 in the country. Concordia's block made a big difference again on Tuesday as they out-blocked Minnesota Duluth 10.0-4.0. Heather Schiller once again continued her dominance in that category as she had five total blocks on the night. The trio of Anna Schlaak, Emma Lange and Mariya Sampson led the way offensively for Concordia as they all finished in double figures in kills in the match.

LAST TIME OUT... The Golden Bears picked up a midweek sweep of Minnesota State on Tuesday night.

Concordia's defense shined as they held MSU to just a .144 hitting percentage as they forced 17 attack errors and collected 8.0 blocks. The offense slowed down slightly from their recent torrid pace but still managed to hit .279 in the win.
 
With just 45 kills as a team on the night, five different Golden Bears registered at least seven kills in a balanced attack. Anna Schlaak paced the offense with 12 kills while Riley Hanson hit a solid .474 with 10 kills on the night. Emily McDonough fell a kill short of a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs and Heather Schiller and Emma Lange each chipped in seven kills apiece.

Kasey Williams finished with 43 assists as she led the offense while Taylor Dordan secured the defense with 19 digs. Hope Schiller was also active in the back row with eight digs to go along with three service aces.

NCAA STATISTICAL LEADERS... Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, several players rank near the top statistically on the national level. Kasey Williams went into Tuesday night's match registering in at fourth in assists per set at 12.11 while Heather Schiller ranked seventh in the nation with 1.38 blocks per set. As a team, CSP ranks sixth in assists per set (13.67), ninth in kills per set (14.33), 10th in hitting percentage (.267) and 14th in blocks per set (2.45) as well.