ST. PAUL, Minn. - The top-seeded #1 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (29-2) begins play in the 2016 NCAA Central Region Tournament against eighth-seeded Southern Nazarene (20-10) on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center in the first ever meeting between the two schools.

ABOUT THE CRIMSON STORM
Southern Nazarene will be making their first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. The Crimson Storm won the Great American Conference tournament title for the first time in any sport in just their third year as a full-time member of NCAA Division II while also becoming just the third different GAC school to make the tournament after Arkansas Tech and Southwestern Oklahoma State.

After starting the season 12-10 overall and a 7-5 record in league play, the Crimson Storm caught fire and won their final eight matches of the year to turn in a third place finish in the reular season and tournament title. They were especially impressive in the GAC Tournament as they won all nine sets en route to taking the crown.

Leading the way for the Crimson Storm has been senior right side Courtney Bowie and junior middle blocker McKayla Benner as both earned All-GAC Second Team honors. Senior libero Abbey Bell and junior setter Elyse Berlin were also named honorable mention.

LAST TIME OUT
Last Sunday, the Golden Bears extended their winning streak to 13 with their third straight sweep in the NSIC Tournament with a sweep of then-#4 Southwest Minnesota State to claim their fifth conference tourney title.

The Golden Bears made it back-to-back seasons in which they claimed both the NSIC regular season and tournament titles after going nine seasons without a tourney title. In addition to last season's crown, CSP also collected tournament championships three straight seasons from 2004-06.

Concordia had three players named to the NSIC All-Tournament Team as Emma Lange, Emily McDonough and Kasey Williams all earned the honor. Emma Lange was a repeat selection from last season as Williams and McDonough each took home the award for the first times in their careers.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Golden Bears have made it into the NCAA Tournament field in all 14 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey and have won nine Central Region titles during that span. CSP has gone 55-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and collected a record seven consecutive NCAA Division II National Championships from 2007-13, including a 43-match winning streak that was snapped in the 2014 Central Region semifinals by Southwest Minnesota State.

This weekend marks the second straight year and ninth time overall that the Golden Bears have hosted the NCAA Central Region Tournament. Before 2012, Concordia served as regional host six times in a seven year span from 2003-09 with the only exception coming in 2007. In the NCAA Tournament, including two Elite Eights, CSP has gone 25-3 and have claimed five region titles and a pair of national titles on their home court. The Golden Bears are 11-0 in regional quarterfinals, with two byes, and have won their first match all 13 years under Starkey. Concordia has reached the NCAA Region Championship (Sweet Sixteen) every year with the exception of 2014.

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 four 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 74 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 .445 as she leads all players by a full .030 percentage points. Kasey Williams ranks second in assists per set at 12.22, trailing only SMSU's Megan Larson in the category.
 
The Golden Bears as a team lead the nation with a .331 hitting percentage while also ranking second with 14.23 assists per set and second with 14.96 kills per set.

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
Two weeks ago, 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 1,447 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 993 kills in her career, sitting seven 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 964 digs in her career to go along with 4,378 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she became the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.