Volleyball | 9.23.15
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #8 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (7-3, 2-1 NSIC) hits the road for a pair of NSIC matches as they take on #3 Southwest Minnesota State (9-2, 2-1 NSIC) and Sioux Falls (8-4, 0-3 NSIC) this weekend.
THE MATCHUPS... On Friday, the Golden Bears and Mustangs meet for the 52nd time in their extensive rivalry. Overall, the series has been pretty even with Concordia holding a 28-22-1 advantage in their previous meetings, but CSP has dominated since 2002, going 28-4 during that span. The Golden Bears continued that trend last season by winning the first two meetings, but the Mustangs got the big win as they ended Concordia's season in the NCAA Central Region semifinals.
In that meeting, SMSU snapped CSP's streak of seven consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships along with their 43 match postseason winning streak. Abbey Thissen was excellent for the Mustangs with 20 kills while
Anna Schlaak paced the Golden Bears with 15 kills.
Kasey Williams also picked up a double-double with 43 assists and 11 digs.
Saturday's matchup between Concordia and Sioux Falls marks the ninth meeting between the two schools. The two programs met three times in the 1990's with USF winning three of the four meetings, but CSP has won all four meetings since the Cougars joined the NSIC in 2012.
In last season's meeting, it certainly wasn't easy for Concordia as the lead changed hands at least once in each set with 23 total ties and nine lead changes in the match. Offensively, the Golden Bears held the edge over the Cougars as they hit .315 compared to .172 for USF. CSP also dominated at the net with 13.0 total blocks while Sioux Falls had only three.
Riley Hanson was nearly unstoppable for the Golden Bears as she finished with a match-high 17 kills while committing no errors on 24 attempts. Her .708 hitting percentage was good for 11th best in school history with at least 20 attempts.
LAST TIME OUT... Concordia- St. Paul put together a strong performance as they swept Minnesota State on Tuesday night at the Gangelhoff Center.
CSP controlled every aspect of the match as they led MSU in hitting percentage (.228-.165), kills (39-35), assists (37-33), total blocks (8.0-5.0) and service aces (7-3) while committing less service errors (3-9) and blocking errors (3-4).
In what was a quiet individual statistic night,
Anna Schlaak paced the Golden Bears with 13 kills while also chipping in eight digs.
Emma Lange contributed eight kills as well while
Riley Hanson and
Mariya Sampson added six kills apiece.
Hope Schiller led the way in the back row for Concordia with 10 digs while
Kasey Williams finished with a match-best 35 assists.
NSIC LEADERS... Through the first few weeks of the season, the Golden Bears have had several players rank near the top of the league in different stastical categories.
Heather Schiller leads the group as she leads the NSIC with 1.47 blocks per set while
Emma Lange also comes in at sixth with 1.14.
Kasey Williams also ranks near the top in assists as she has registered 12.17 per set, good for second in the league.
Anna Schlaak and
Emily McDonough also appear in the top-5 as Schlaak ranks third in kills per set (4.25) and McDonough ranks third in service aces per set (0.42).
