Volleyball | 10.12.16

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-1, 8-1 NSIC) returns to Gangelhoff Center to play host to #3 Southwest Minnesota State (14-3, 8-1 NSIC) on Friday and Sioux Falls (11-6, 5-4 NSIC) on Saturday.

THE MATCHUPS
On Friday, the CSP plays host to a top-5 battle as they take on SMSU. The Golden Bears have faced the Mustangs more than any other program as they hold a record of 31-22-1 in 54 previous meetings. After the Mustangs went unbeaten in the first 19 meetings, Concordia completely took over. Since 2002, CSP has won 31 of the 35 meetings, including 16 wins in 18 meetings in St. Paul since then.

Back on Sept. 10 in the Colorado Premier Challenge, the Golden Bears claimed their fifth tournament title with a four-set win over then-#5 Southwest Minnesota State. The Mustangs gave the Golden Bears a battle, but the Concordia offense proved to be too much as they hit .308 with 65 kills on 156 swings as a team in the win. Kasey Williams spread the ball around nearly evenly as her 57 assists led to all five starters finishing between 11 and 15 kills. Williams also added 18 digs for a massive double-double. Anna Pioske joined Williams with a double-double of her own with 11 kills and 11 digs while Emily McDonough led all players with 22 digs and Hope Schiller chipped in 11 digs as well.

Concordia's history against Sioux Falls is much less extensive as the Golden Bears have gone 7-3 in the all-time series against the Cougars. Since USF joined the NSIC, Concordia has won all six meetings, including three wins in St. Paul and three wins in Sioux Falls. The Cougars' last win in the series came in a sweep back in 1999. In four total meetings in St. Paul, CSP has picked up three wins.

In the second of CSP's two wins in the series last season, the Golden Bears grinded out a hard fought four-set win. It was a struggle offensively for the Golden Bears as they hit .233 or below in the first three sets before breaking out with a massive .652 hitting percentage in the final set. Overall, CSP ended up with a .291 hitting percentage with 47 kills and 13 hitting errors. The defense made the difference for Concordia as they limited USF to just a .157 hitting percentage for the match, including below .100 for each of the first two sets. Riley Hanson was a big part of the defensive effort as she fell one block shy of her career high with a match-high eight. In addition, she also matched Emma Lange with a team-high 11 kills on the night.

LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears picked up a pair of huge road wins as they knocked off #6 Augustana in five sets on Friday before rolling to a sweep of #8 Wayne State on Saturday.

Concordia held a pair of top-10 opponents to just .198 hitting on the weekend while hitting .299 as a team in the two wins. They also held edges of 119-98 in kills, 14.62-11.75 in assists, 10-6 in service aces, 150-103 in digs and 17.0-12.0 in total blocks.

Anna Schlaak earned AVCA/Sports Imports National Player of the Week honors as she led the team with 4.75 kills per set to go along with 3.88 digs per set. The senior collected a pair of massive double-doubles, giving her five on the year, as she had a season-high 23 kills and 17 digs at Augie before putting up 15 kills and 14 digs against Wayne State.

IN THE POLLS
After spending the first five weeks in the top spot in the AVCA Poll, CSP has ranked second in the past two weeks. Concordia has been a mainstay near the top of the poll for over a decade as they haven't ranked outside the top-10 since 2003 and have spent just one week outside the top-5 since October 2012. With their five weeks in the top spot to begin the year, the Golden Bears have now spent an incredible 70 weeks at #1 since they debuted there in the 2003 preseason poll. Since the 2007 season, CSP has ranked #1 at least once every season.

NATIONAL LEADERS
Heading into this week, Concordia has a pair of players that rank second and third in the country in statistical categories while the team ranks first in three categories.

Kasey Williams ranks second in assists per set at 12.46, trailing only SMSU's Megan Larson in the category. Riley Hanson sits in third in hitting percentage with an efficient mark of .444 as she sits .009 percentage points behind the national leader.

The team also leads the nation with 14.26 assists per set and 15.11 kills per set while their team hitting percentage of .326 also sits in the top spot.

REACHING 1,000
This past weekend at Augustana, senior Anna Schlaak became the 18th member of the 1,000 kill club at Concordia as she earned AVCA National Player of the Week and NSIC Offensive Player of the Week in the process.

Schlaak joined teammate Riley Hanson, who reached that plateau last season, as the two current players to reach that mark. Since then, Hanson has pushed her career total to 1,308 kills to move into ninth in program history, putting her 17 short of Cassie Haag in eighth and 23 short of Valerie Olson for seventh.

The Golden Bears could see another member of the squad reach the mark this season as Emma Lange enters the weekend with 850 kills in her career, sitting 150 kills shy of the mark.

In addition to the 1,000 kill mark, several CSP players are closing in on the 1,000 dig mark.

Senior libero Emily McDonough heads into the weekend just 25 digs shy of reaching 1,000 as she holds a total of 975 digs in her career. If she were to reach the 1,000 mark, she would become the 14th player in Concordia history to join the club.

She isn't the only one closing in as Schlaak has 894 digs, just 106 shy of 1,000, going into the weekend. If she were to reach the mark, she would become the fifth member of the prestigious 1,000/1,000 club in kills and digs at CSP and only the third to do so entirely at Concordia.

Senior Kasey Williams also sits in range of 1,000 as she has picked up 853 digs in her career to go along with 3,927 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she would become the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.