ST. PAUL, Minn. - Top seed and #1-ranked Concordia-St. Paul (28-2) defeated fifth seed and #6-ranked Winona State (26-5) in straight sets (25-17, 23, 20) on Saturday afternoon in the NSIC Tournament semifinals at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears advance to the NSIC Tournament championship match on Sunday, November 20 at 3 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.

Concordia will face the winner of second seed and #4-ranked Southwest Minnesota State and sixth seed #8-ranked Wayne State. Concordia and SMSU were co-regular season champions. CSP is 5-2 all-time in postseason play against SMSU and Wayne State, with the Mustangs and Wildcats each winning two in a row in the postseason against Concordia, once each in the NSIC Tournament and once each in the NCAA Central Region Tournament.

Concordia is 4-2 in six prior trips to the NSIC Tournament championship match, winning last year's title along with the 2004, 2005 and 2006 conference tournament titles. CSP is now 20-4 all-time in the NSIC Tournament and 7-2 in the NSIC semifinal round. Concordia extends its home winning streak to 17 matches against Winona State and a 27-1 record in the last 28 meetings (CSP leads the series 29-8 overall).

Senior setter Kasey Williams dished out 42 assists, setting an attack that hit .345 (52-11-119) for the match and added 17 digs. Senior libero Emily McDonough averaged nine digs per set, coming just four digs shy (27) of her previous career-high. The 27 digs is fourth most in a three-set match in team history.

Offensively, junior Mariya Sampson led the team with 13 kills while hitting .429 with just one error while freshman Sara Macek added 12 kills and a .364 percentage. Senior Riley Hanson led the team in efficiency at .529, slugging nine kills in 17 error-free attempts.

Winona State was led by Taylor Goar with 11 kills and 12 digs while setter McKenna Larsen had 31 assists and 10 digs, adding seven kills and three aces.

The Golden Bears came out strong in today's match, scoring the first seven points of the contest and leading by at least five the rest of the set.

But the second set featured 14 ties and six lead changes with the largest lead of the set held by WSU at 11-8 and 12-9. Trailing 20-19, the Golden Bears rallied for three straight points to claim a 22-20 advantage with Sampson providing back-to-back kills for the tie and the lead before a Hanson kill gave CSP the two point edge. The swing proved crucial as WSU wasn't able to tie the set down the stretch.

The third set started tight again, with WSU opening an early 4-2 margin. Trailing 7-6, Concordia went on a 6-2 spurt to claim a 12-9 lead. Concordia continued to hold onto the small lead, leading 15-12 before WSU rallied to tie the third set at 15.

Concordia responded to the last tie of the match by scoring seven in a row with Emma Lange providing two of the final three points via kills for the 22-15 lead.

WSU trimmed the margin to 24-20 before Hanson put down the final kill for the Golden Bears.