ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-1, 6-1 NSIC) cruised to a sweep of St. Cloud State (5-10, 1-6 NSIC) on Saturday evening at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears took the three sets 25-19, 25-11 and 25-18.
Concordia bounced back from their first loss of the season with a comfortable three-set win over the Huskies. The Golden Bears made it 23 straight wins over the Huskies in CSP's DII era as they made it 20 sweeps during that span.
CSP cruised throughout as they hit an impressive .418 while holding SCSU to just .086 on the night. The Golden Bears also dominated at the net as they collected 8.0 blocks with just 1.0 for St. Cloud State while committing less hitting errors with nine compared to 17 for the Huskies.
Anna Schlaak shined with a team-best 16 kills with a solid .406 hitting percentage while also finishing second on the team with eight digs.
Riley Hanson added another efficient effort as she put up 11 kills on just 17 swings for a mark of .529. Rounding out highlights offensively,
Emma Lange finished with eight kills with just one error to hit .467 in the win.
Emily McDonough continued her stellar senior campaign as she nearly doubled up the next highest finisher with 17 digs and a match-best three service aces while
Kasey Williams and
Elizabeth Mohr split the setting duties as Williams picked up 26 assists and Mohr picked up 17.
The Huskies were led by Macy Weller's eight kills while Clara Krenz had nine digs and Marissa Kline had 15 assists.
Things got off to a slow start for Concordia as SCSU took an early lead until CSP turned things around midway through the set. The Golden Bears took control with a 6-0 run to turn a 9-8 deficit into a 14-9 lead, but the Huskies bounced back to regain the lead at 16-15. The lead wouldn't last, however, as Concordia took 20 of the final 13 points of the set to take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-19 set win.
The Golden Bears ran out to an early lead in the second with six of the first seven points before cruising much of the rest of the way. The lead wouldn't shrink below four as it hit double digits at 17-7 before eventually finishing at 25-11.
After Concordia took a quick 6-3 lead in the third, the two teams went back and forth until the late stages of the set. In total, the set featured eight ties and four lead changes as SCSU led as late as 16-14 before the Golden Bears turned it on with an 11-2 run to finish off the sweep with a score of 25-18.
Concordia will look to stay in the win column next weekend as they hit the road to face a pair of top-10 opponents in #8 Augustana and #9 Wayne State.
