ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-4, 18-2 NSIC) clinched their 12
th NSIC Championship in the last 13 years with a four-set win over #2 Southwest Minnesota State (24-4, 17-3 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center on Senior Day.
Entering the day in a three-way tie with SMSU and Northern State, the Golden Bears claimed the league title outright as both the Mustangs and Wolves picked up losses on the final day of the regular season. CSP now enters the NSIC Tournament as the top-seeded team and will host eight-seed Minnesota State at home on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. A win on Wednesday night would mean that the tournament semifinals and championship would be held at the Gangelhoff Center on Saturday and Sunday.
The win also clinches a perfect record on their home court in NSIC play as the Golden Bears extended their NSIC regular season home winning streak in St. Paul to 19, dating back to the conference opener last season.
CU Volleyball vs. SMSU 11.14.2015 - Images by
Justin Oakman
Concordia came up big in the regular season finale as they slowed down the SMSU attack and held them to just a .140 hitting percentage while collecting a mark of .250 for themselves. CSP out-blocked the Mustangs 13.0-8.0 and forced 29 hitting errors compared to 17 of their own to dominate play at the net.
Anna Schlaak provided one of her best performances of the season as she provided an impressive double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs to go along with four blocks as she hit .400 for the match.
Senior
Taylor Dordan also had a memorable match on Senior Day as her match-high 18 digs moved her into third place in school history with 1,704 career digs.
Riley Hanson fell just a block short of a double-double as she matched her career-best with nine blocks as she also put up 11 kills with a .375 hitting percentage.
Anna Pioske also chipped in both offensively and defensively as she collected her second career double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs while
Heather Schiller also went into double figures in kills with 11.
Kasey Williams fell one assist short of an even 50 as she also chipped in a pair of blocks and digs.
The tone was set early on as the two teams went toe-to-toe in the first set. Neither team led by more than three as there were nine ties and three lead changes during that span. It was the Mustangs that held the upper hand first with four of the first five points before CSP went up by three at 8-5. SMSU held a slight lead from there as they led as late as 16-15 before a big three point swing in favor of Concordia shifted the momentum. The Mustangs battled back to tie it at 22, but the Golden Bears surged to take three of the final four points to go up 1-0 in the match.
The Mustangs got off to a fast start in the second with a 6-1 lead, but it wouldn't last long as CSP took over. The Golden Bears remained down by two at 8-6 before a 7-2 run put them ahead for good in the set. They slowly extended the lead to seven at 21-14 before comfortably cruising to a 25-18 set win and a 2-0 lead heading into the break.
Southwest Minnesota State battled back to make things interesting in the third set as they took the lead at 5-4 and remained in the lead until the closing points. They still held a three point lead at 18-15 before another CSP run put the Golden Bears on top 22-19. The next five points and six of the next seven, however, went in favor of SMSU as they forced a fourth set with a 25-23 win.
With the score close at 7-6 in the fourth, Concordia took off on a massive 12-2 run to put it out of reach. The Golden Bears didn't take their foot off the gas as they poured it on the rest of the way to clinch the NSIC title with a 25-11 set win in the fourth.
