ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (20-2, 12-2 NSIC) is set to host MSU Moorhead (9-13, 4-10 NSIC) on Friday and #13 Northern State (16-6, 9-5 NSIC) on Saturday for the second-to-last home weekend of the regular season.

THE MATCHUPS
The Golden Bears meet the Dragons for the 35th time in series history on Friday as Concordia holds a 26-8 record in the previous 34 meetings. Since 2001, however, CSP has dominated the seried by winning 26 of the last 27 meetings. MSUM's last win against CSP came back on Nov. 9, 2007 in a four-set win in St. Paul. Since then, Concordia has dropped just two sets in 11 meetings. In St. Paul, the Golden Bears have won 13 of the 16 contests.

In last year's meeting in Moorhead, the Golden Bears were impressive both offensively and defensively as they hit .385 as a team and held the Dragons to just .099. It marked the first time all season that CSP hit above .300 and held their opponent below .100 in the same match. Anna Schlaak and Emily McDonough matched each other shot-for-shot as they both finished with a match-high 13 kills to go along with 10 digs apiece in double-double efforts. Schlaak hit .571 while McDonough hit .324. Riley Hanson was even more impressive as she had an amazing .833 hitting percentage with 11 kills in just 12 attempts as she nearly had a perfect day hitting.

Against the Wolves, Concordia holds a record of 30-8 in the all-time series heading into the weekend. Northern State snapped CSP's 27 game winning streak spanning 12 seasons in the series last season as the Wolves knocked off the Golden Bears in four sets in Aberdeen. The Golden Bears have claimed the last 19 meetings in St. Paul after NSU won the first three there.

After last season's defeat in Aberdeen, Concordia bounced back with a dominant sweep in their home tournament back on Sept. 3. The CSP offense was incredibly efficient as their .554 hitting percentage matched the second best mark in program history, matching their mark against U-Mary back on Oct. 24, 2009. The only mark higher came back on Sept. 21, 2002 at MSU Moorhead as they hit .587. Leading the way in the attack was Riley Hanson, Sara Macek and Anna Schlaak as all three finished with at least 10 kills. Hanson put up a match-best 11 kills to go along with three blocks and an ace while Anna Schlaak contributed 10 kills, six digs and a match-high four aces. Macek was nearly perfect on the day as she finished with 10 kills on only 12 swings to put up a .833 hitting percentage.

LAST TIME OUT
Last week, the Golden Bears won all nine sets they played as they swept Minnesota State at home on Tuesday before sweeping Minot State and U-Mary on the road over the weekend.

Concordia's three wins pushed them to 20 wins for the 15th consecutive season as they also secured their 15th consecutive season with a winning record in conference play. CSP hit .373 for the week while holding their opponents to just. 032 on the week.

Anna Schlaak continued her solid play of late as she tied for the team lead with 3.33 kills per set while ranking second on the team with 3.33 digs per set on the week. Schlaak's double-doubles on Tuesday and Friday pushed her total to eight on the season as she made it five in a six-match stretch. The senior also added four service aces on the week to add to her team lead. Heading into this week, she ranks eighth in the NSIC in kills per set and third in 0.54 aces per set.

IN THE POLLS
After spending the first five weeks in the top spot in the AVCA Poll, CSP has ranked just outside the top spot at #2 or #3 in the past four 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 sits in the top spot in hitting percentage with an efficient mark of .433 as she leads all players by a full .015 percentage points. Kasey Williams ranks second in assists per set at 12.09, trailing only SMSU's Megan Larson in the category.
 
The Golden Bears as a team lead the nation with a .325 hitting percentage while also ranking third with 13.85 assists per set and 14.62 kills per set.

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.
 
Three 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 1,346 kills to move into seventh in program history, surpassing Cassie Haag and Valerie Olson last Tuesday night.
 
The Golden Bears could see another member of the squad reach the mark this season as Emma Lange enters the weekend with 893 kills in her career, sitting 107 kills shy of the mark.
 
On the defensive side, senior libero Emily McDonough surpassed the mark of 1,000 digs two weekends ago 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 945 digs, just 55 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 891 digs in her career to go along with 4,075 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she became the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.