ST. PAUL, Minn. - The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-2, 16-2 NSIC) closes out the regular season this weekend with a chance to claim their 13th NSIC regular season crown as they host Minnesota Crookston (10-16, 6-12 NSIC) on Friday for Parents Day and Bemidji State (7-20, 3-15 NSIC) for Senior Day on Saturday.

PARENTS DAY
On Friday night, the Golden Bear volleyball program will honor the parents of the players with a brief pre-match ceremony to thank the parents for their hard work and dedication.

SENIOR DAY
Saturday's matchup represents the final regular season home match for six Concordia seniors as Riley Hanson, Emma Lange, Anna Pioske, Emily McDonough, Anna Schlaak and Kasey Williams will be honored on Senior Day. In the six seasons that at least one member of this group has been on the team (including redshirt years), the team has picked up 182 wins compared to just 22 losses while claiming four conference titles and three national titles.

NSIC TITLE PUSH
The Golden Bears enter the weekend with a chance to win their 13th NSIC regular season title in 14 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey. Heading into the weekend, CSP sits in a tie for first at 16-2 with Southwest Minnesota State, meaning a pair of wins would clinch at least a share of the crown. The Mustangs close out the regular season against U-Mary and Minot State while Winona State, Minnesota Duluth and Augustana all sit a game behind at 15-3.

THE MATCHUPS
On Friday, the Golden Bears meet the Golden Eagles for the 33rd time in program history as Concordia enters with a record of 29-3 against UMC. After three straight wins for Minnesota Crookston to begin the series, Concordia has rattled off 29 wins in a row with 27 sweeps dating back to 2000. Minnesota Crookston's last win in the series came back on Oct. 29, 1999 in St. Paul. In 15 meetings all-time in St. Paul, CSP has won 14 of them.

In the meeting back on Sept. 23, the Golden Bears moved to 12-0 with a sweep on the road at Minnesota Crookston. Concordia rode an efficient offense to a hitting percentage of .432, including a mark of .667 in the second set, as they picked up 45 kills on 81 swings. In the dominant second set, CSP picked up 15 kills while committing a single error on 21 attempts. Concordia's two middles stole the show as freshman Sara Macek was nearly perfect with 10 kills on 13 swings to hit .692 while Riley Hanson finished with a match-high 11 kills along with a .500 hitting percentage.

Saturday's contest in St. Paul between CSP and Bemidji State marks the 40th meeting between the two programs with Concordia holding a 30-8-1 edge in the previous meetings. As was the case against UMC, the Golden Bears have held a decisive edge in recent history in the series with 28 consecutive wins dating back to the 2002 season. During that span, all but two of Concordia's wins have been sweeps, including the last nine in a row. In 19 trips in St. Paul, CSP is 16-3.

Back on Sept. 24 in Bemidji, CSP dominated nearly across the board as they held a 44-23 edge in kills, a 40-21 edge in assists, a 9-4 edge in service aces, a 38-30 edge in digs as well as a .271-.043 advantage in hitting percentage in a sweep of the Beavers. Concordia mixed things up on Saturday as they rotated setters for the first time all season as Elizabeth Mohr set new career-highs with 21 assists and 10 digs for her first career double-double while Kasey Williams chipped in 13 assists to go along with a pair of digs.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, CSP picked up a big road win at Minnesota Duluth on Friday before sweeping St. Cloud State on Saturday.

The Golden Bears outlasted UMD in a five-setter to move ahead of the Bulldogs in the standings as they enter the final weekend in a tie with SMSU for first place. CSP extended their winning streak to eight as they hit .310 compared to .181 for their opponents to go along with 22.0 blocks on the weekend.

Kasey Williams earned NSIC Setter of the Week honors for the second week in a row as she picked up 12.00 assists per set in the team's two wins over the weekend. Riley Hanson had another big weekend as she hit .435 with 23 kills (2.88 per set) to go along with 11 blocks. Hanson surpassed her career-best in blocks against UMD as she finished with 10 to go along with 16 kills.

IN THE POLLS
After spending the first five weeks in the top spot in the AVCA Poll, CSP returned to the top spot last week 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 72 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 top three 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 12.17, 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 14.03 assists per set and second with 14.80 kills per set.

REACHING 1,000
In the past month, 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.
 
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.
 
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 1,400 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 939 kills in her career, sitting 61 kills shy of the mark.
 
On the defensive side, 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.

She isn't the only one closing in as Schlaak has 996 digs, just four 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 915 digs in her career to go along with 4,276 assists. In addition to nearing 1,000 digs, she became the fourth player at Concordia to reach 4,000 assists as well.