Volleyball | 10.17.16

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (17-2, 9-2 NSIC) is set to take on Minnesota State (9-10, 3-8 NSIC) on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. for Dig Pink night at the Gangelhoff Center.
 
DIG PINK
Tuesday night's match against Minnesota State will be Dig Pink, an event hosted by Concordia's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and Concordia's business club. In addition, business club will be selling breast cancer awareness t-shirts as well as holding a raffle drawing at intermission. All proceeds for the t-shirts will go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
 
THE MATCHUP
Concordia and Minnesota State will meet for the 29th time in the all-time series as the Golden Bears hold a 24-4 record through the first 28 meetings. After MSU handed Concordia a loss in the conference opener in 2014, CSP has rattled off six straight wins in the series, including a four-set win in Mankato back on Sept. 20. In 11 total meetings in St. Paul, the Golden Bears have yet to drop a match to the Mavericks.
 
Back on Sept. 20, the Golden Bears rode their defense to victory as they held the Mavericks to .065 for the match, including marks in the negative in each of the final two sets in the four-set win. Concordia also hit well offensively in their three set wins as they hit .388 in the first, third and fourth sets while they -.139 in their set loss. CSP also held a 55-40 advantage in digs and a 10-2 advantage in service aces.
 
Emily McDonough helped lead the way from the back as she led all players with 18 digs. She was joined in double figures with Anna Schlaak, who finished with 11 digs and seven kills.
 
Offensively, Riley Hanson paced the Golden Bears with 13 kills along with three digs while hitting .409 while Emma Lange collected 10 kills, two blocks and two digs. Anna Pioske also added nine kills and Sara Macek put up seven. Kasey Williams continued her strong start with 48 assists as well.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears split on their home court as they fell in five sets to then-#3 Southwest Minnesota State on Friday before rolling past Sioux Falls in a sweep,
 
Concordia saw a 2-0 lead in the match disappear against the Mustangs as SMSU stormed back to win the final three sets. The loss was just the fifth in the last 36 meetings and third in the last 19 meetings in St. Paul for the Golden Bears against the Mustangs.
 
CSP bounced back in a big way on Saturday as they stifled the Cougars and held them to a negative hitting percentage at -.068. The mark was the lowest that the Golden Bears have held an opponent since Oct. 12, 2010 against Bemidji State.
 
IN THE POLLS
After spending the first five weeks in the top spot in the AVCA Poll, CSP has ranked outside the top spot in the past three 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 first and second in the country in statistical categories while the team ranks second in three categories.
 
Riley Hanson returned to the top spot in hitting percentage with an efficient mark of .431 as she moved back to the top spot after being in the top-3 the past few weeks. Kasey Williams ranks second in assists per set at 12.19, trailing only SMSU's Megan Larson in the category. 
 
The team also sits at second the nation with 13.98 assists per set and 14.77 kills per set while their team hitting percentage of .319 also sits in second.
 
REACHING 1,000
In the past few weekends, Concordia has seen a pair of players reach 1,000 as Anna Schlaak joined the 1,000 kill club and Emily McDonough joined the 1,000 dig club.
 
Two weekends ago 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 1,324 kills to move into ninth in program history, putting her one short of Cassie Haag in eighth and seven 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 876 kills in her career, sitting 124 kills shy of the mark.
 
On the defensive side, senior libero Emily McDonough surpassed the mark of 1,000 digs last Saturday against Sioux Falls as she became the 14th player in Concordia history to join the club.
 
She isn't the only one closing in as Schlaak has 915 digs, just 85 shy of 1,000, going into the week. 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 876 digs in her career to go along with 4,009 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she became the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.