ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (28-4) advanced to the NCAA Central Region semifinals with a sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma State (22-12) on Thursday night at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears will face fourth-seeded #14 Central Oklahoma in the semifinals on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
 
Concordia improves to 54-5 all-time and 24-2 on their home court in NCAA Tournament play as they remain unbeaten in 11 opening round matches. The Golden Bears advance to the round of 32 for the 13^th year in a row as they hold an impressive 11-1 record in 12 previous trips with their only loss coming last year to Southwest Minnesota State. As was the case in the opening round matchup with SWOSU, CSP meets UCO for the first time ever in the all-time series.
 
The Concordia offense was too much for Southwestern Oklahoma State to handle as they matched their season best with a .532 hitting percentage as they put up 44 kills and committed just three errors. That mark matched the fourth highest mark in single-match Concordia history as it was their highest percentage since they hit .547 against U-Mary in 2013.
 
CSP had three players hit .588 or better and four players hit .421 or better in what was a balanced effort. Emma Lange had a match-high 11 kills as she hit a robust .588 while Anna Schlaak was nearly perfect with nine kills on 11 swings for an .818 hitting percentage. Riley Hanson also hit .615 with eight kills while Anna Pioske hit .421 with nine kills.
 
Kasey Williams was impressive as she guided the offense with 37 assists on a night in which the offense made very few mistakes.
 
Defensively, Anna Pioske and Emily McDonough each put up seven digs while Riley Hanson paced all players with seven blocks.
 
The Golden Bears' serving also gave the Bulldogs some serious trouble as they matched their season high with 10 service aces as a team. Blocks also went in CSP's favor as they put up 7.0 blocks compared to none for SWOSU.
 
A big part of Concordia's success on the serve was freshman Hope Schiller. Schiller set a career-high and season-best for the team with five aces on the night. Her mark tied for 11^th most in program history and matched the highest total since 2009.
 
Carly Zak provided a bright spot with 10 kills on the night for the Bulldogs in their first ever NCAA match as she hit .318. Her 10 kills represented over half of the team's kills as they had 19 on the night and hit .070.
 
The Bulldogs came out firing in their first ever tourney action as they claimed three of the first four points and four of the first six to jump ahead early. That lead wouldn't last, however, as Concordia answered with a dominant 12-1 run to full take control of play at 14-5. The lead hit double digits at 16-6 and continued to grow from there before eventually reaching as large as 14 at 23-9 and 24-10 before CSP closed out the opening set 25-12.
 
After the two teams traded the first two points of the second, it was all Golden Bears as they picked up where they left off in the first set. CSP rattled off 14 of the next 15 points to build a 15-2 lead quickly as they looked to run away with the set. Concordia continued to extend their lead as it hit 14 at the 19-5 mark before SWOSU strung together a few points to stem the tide. They were unable to bring it back to single digits as Concordia went up 2-0 in the match with a 25-11 win in the second set.
 
Southwestern Oklahoma State showed some resilience in the third set as they matched the Golden Bears in the early going and even led as late as 7-6, but CSP proved to be too much as they ran out to a 15-7 lead with nine straight points. Concordia didn't allow the Bulldogs to pull closer than six the rest of the way as the Golden Bears finished strong and finished off SWOSU with a 25-15 set win in the third.