ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (30-2) advances to the 2016 NCAA Central Region semifinals with a sweep of eighth-seeded Southern Nazarene (20-11) on Thursday night at Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears will face fifth-seeded #6 Winona State (27-5) in the semifinals on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
 
Concordia improves to 56-6 overall and 26-3 on their home court in NCAA Tournament action as they advance to the round of 32 for the 13^th year in a row. CSP moves to 12-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and 14-0 in their first match of the tournament as they advance to a round in which they have collected 12 wins in 13 tries. The win is also CSP's 14^th in a row this season.

Concordia meets Winona State for the 38^th time in program history as they hold decisive 29-8 edge in the previous 37 meetings. CSP has dominated the series in recent history with 27 wins in the last 28 contests. WSU's lone win in the series since 2001 came in a four-set win at Winona on Sept. 19, 2015. The Golden Bears are 17-1 against the Warriors at Gangelhoff Center.
 

"They have good offense, good passing, they've got everything so we will have to bring our game," junior outside hitter Mariya Sampson said of tomorrow night's match with the Warriors.
 
The Golden Bear defense gave the Crimson Storm fits as they held them to .010 hitting on the day while collecting 13.0 blocks in the three-set victory. CSP held SNU to negative hitting percentages in the first and third sets while they hit .222 in a close second set.
 
Sarah Macek, Riley Hanson, Emma Lange and Anna Schlaak were all active in the block as they aided the defensive effort. Macek led the way with seven blocks, Hanson and Lange each added six and Schlaak chipped in four.


 
While the offense wasn't firing on all cylinders, Concordia had five different hitters collect at least six kills with a hitting percentage of .265 as a team on the night.
 
Mariya Sampson was the focal point of the offense on the night as was the only player in the match to finish in double figures in kills as she put up 14 on just 24 swings.
 
Hanson and Macek each finished with seven kills while Lange and Schlaak both had six. Lange's six kills puts her within one of 1,000 at 999 in her career.
 
Senior Courtney Bowie led the Crimson Storm with six kills with Hannah Davis had 13 digs in the loss.
 
"We talked a lot about keeping our side consistent and that's what we focused on throughout the match tonight," said senior setter Kasey Williams of the team's performance.
 
Coach Brady Starkey added, "I thought that we blocked well and served pretty tough. Out serve receive was okay but our offense wasn't quite as crisp as we wanted it to so we'll have to speed it up a bit tomorrow against Winona tomorrow."
 
The Golden Bears set the tone from the opening set as they used an early 7-0 run to turn a 2-2 tie into a 9-2 lead in quick fashion. The lead continued to grow from there as it hit nine at 13-4 before reaching double figures at 18-6 with a pair of 4-0 bursts. The Crimson Storm settled down from there and battled back to within eight at 20-12, but it wouldn't be enough as CSP rolled to a 25-14 set win in the first.
 
After the Golden Bears ran out to another quick lead with five of the first six points in the second set, Southern Nazarene fought their way back in it to make things interesting. CSP's lead temporarily grew to seven at 15-8, but the Crimson Storm responded with 11 of the next 15 points to cut the lead all the way down to one at 19-18. That would be all the closer they would get as Concordia answered back with a 5-0 stretch before closing out the set 25-19 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Concordia jumped out of the gates strong again in set three as eight of the first 10 points went in favor of the Golden Bears. They held onto a comfortable lead throughout as their advantage reached double figures at 19-7 before four straight cut it back to eight at 19-11. CSP rebounded with six of the final seven points to finish off the sweep with a 25-12 set win.
 
Action resumes at tomorrow night at 5 p.m. as sixth-seeded #4 Southwest Minnesota State (27-5) takes on sixth-seeded #7 Augustana in the first semifinal before the Golden Bears and Warriors face off at 7:30 p.m.