ST. PAUL, Minn. - For the third consecutive season, the top-seeded #1 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (26-2, 18-2 NSIC) will host eighth-seeded Minnesota State (16-12, 10-10 NSIC) in the NSIC Tournament at Gangelhoff Center on Wednesday night.

THE MATCHUP
The meeting between the two schools marks the third such occasion they have met in the opening round of tournament play after CSP won each of the past two meetings. In the all-time series, the Golden Bears hold a decisive 25-4 edge along with a perfect 12-0 mark at home. The Mavericks' have won just two of the past 27 meetings as their last win came back on Sept. 16, 2014 in Mankato. Since then, Concordia has rattled off eight straight, including both meetings this season.

In the last meeting back on Oct. 18, the Golden Bears cruised to a sweep of MSU at Gangelhoff Center.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, Concordia claimed two sweeps at home against Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State to grab their 13th NSIC regular season crown in the past 14 seasons under Brady Starkey.

The Golden Bears dominated and hit an incredible .497 while holding opponents to .069 as they won five of six sets by at least 12 points on the weekend. Especially impressive, the team hit a school-record .591 in the sweep of Bemidji State with 58 kills and just six errors on 88 swings in the match.

Riley Hanson was especially impressive over the weekend as she committed just one error while picking up 19 kills to finish with an outstanding .692 hitting percentage in the two wins. She also chipped in five blocks. It was also a big weekend for Anna Schlaak as she reached 1,000 digs on Friday to become just the fifth player in school history to have 1,000 career kills and digs.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
CSP will look to continue their first round success as they have gone a perfect 8-0 in opening round games in their eight tournament appearances. Concordia has gone 18-4 overall in the tournament as they have won four titles (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2015). Last season, the Golden Bears knocked off Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth and Winona State en route to claiming their first title in nine years.

IN THE POLLS
After spending the first five weeks in the top spot in the AVCA Poll, CSP has returned to the top spot in each of the past three weeks after after four weeks at #2 and #3. 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. The Golden Bears have now spent an incredible 73 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 players that rank first and second in the country in statistical categories while the team ranks either #1 or #2 in three categories.
 
Riley Hanson sits in the top spot in hitting percentage with an efficient mark of .446 as she leads all players by a full .030 percentage points. Kasey Williams ranks second in assists per set at 12.12, trailing only SMSU's Megan Larson in the category.
 
The Golden Bears as a team lead the nation with a .334 hitting percentage while also ranking second with 14.11 assists per set and second with 14.86 kills per set.

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
Last week, the Northern Sun released their All-NSIC Volleyball teams and the Golden Bears had five players named to the team. Riley Hanson, Emma Lange, Anna Schlaak and Kasey Williams were all named to the First Team and Emily McDonough was named to the Second Team. This marks the sixth time since 2005 that CSP has had five selections while they picked up a program-record six selections in 2008.

REACHING 1,000
This season, Concordia has seen a pair of players reach 1,000 as Anna Schlaak joined the 1,000 kill club and 1,000 dig club while Emily McDonough joined the 1,000 dig club.
 
Back on Oct. 7 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. She also surpassed the 1,000 dig club last Friday to become just he 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.
 
Schlaak joined teammate Riley Hanson in reaching 1,000 kills, who reached that plateau last season, as the two current players to reach that mark. Since then, Hanson has pushed her career total to 1,419 kills to move into seventh in program history.
 
The Golden Bears could see another member of the squad reach the mark this season as Emma Lange enters the weekend with 956 kills in her career, sitting 44 kills shy of the mark.
 
Senior libero Emily McDonough surpassed the mark of 1,000 digs on Oct. 15 against Sioux Falls as she became the 14th player in Concordia history to join the club.

Senior Kasey Williams also sits in range of 1,000 as she has picked up 931 digs in her career to go along with 4,344 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she became the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.