ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (17-2, 9-2 NSIC) bounced back on their home court with a sweep of Sioux Falls (12-7, 6-5 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at the Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears got better as the match went as they won the three sets 28-26, 25-14 and 25-4.
 
Concordia's defense was stifling as they held their opponent to a negative percentage for the first time since October 30th of last season as the mark of -.068 was the lowest mark allowed since Bemidji State hit -.134 against the Golden Bears back on Oct. 12, 2010.
 
The offense wasn't far behind as they hit .351 as a team while hitting over .300 in all three sets. CSP finished with an edge of 37-19 in kills as well as edges of 39-26 in digs, 12.0-4.0 in blocks and 7-5 in service aces.
 
It was a historic night for Emily McDonough as her match-high 14 digs pushed her past the 1,000 dig mark in her career. The senior libero became the 14^th player in school history to reach that mark.
 
Offensively, Anna Schlaak shined once again as her 13 kills were nearly double what any other player had in the match. She hit .407 and added two aces and five digs.
 
Riley Hanson followed with seven kills while Emma Lange had six. Kasey Williams nearly double-double as her 26 assists and nine digs helped lead the team to victory.
 
On a tough night for Sioux Falls, Bria Barfnecht led the team with five kills while Makenna Rockeman and Lexi Scott each had four.
 
The Cougars gave the Golden Bears a tough time in the early going as they took seven of the first 11 points to go up 7-4 in the first. CSP took the next three to tie it up before the lead went back and forth from there. USF regained the lead at 14-13, but Concordia followed with a 4-0 run as they built a comfortable lead. Sioux Falls battled back, however, and pulled within a point of taking the set on three different occasions before CSP strung together three in a row to take it 28-26.
 
CSP had a bit more breathing room in the second as they went ahead 11-8 before rattling off six straight points to push their advantage to 17-8. They continued to grow it from there as it hit 11 at 21-10 and stayed in double figures as they closed out the set 25-14.
 
Concordia finished off the match in empathic fashion as they used runs of five, four, seven and eight mixed around single points from the Cougars as they rolled to a 25-4 set win to complete the sweep.
 
Concordia remains home as they take on Minnesota State in the mid-week on Tuesday night before traveling to Minot State and U-Mary on the weekend.