ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (2-0) made it back-to-back sweeps to open the season as they knocked off the Truman Bulldogs (0-1) in straight sets in the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Volleyball Clash on Friday afternoon.
 
After a strong showing in the opener, the CSP offense was even better in the second match of the weekend as they hit at least .296 in each set en route to finishing with a .312 percentage for the match. The Bulldogs hit .153 on the day as the Golden Bears also held a 10-6 advantage in service aces and a 4-0 advantage in total blocks.
 
Setter Kasey Williams once again spread the ball around as four hitters finished with at least eight kills and six had at least three while she contributed 38 assists and five digs.
 
Mariya Sampson put up a match-best 10 kills to lead Concordia while Anna Schlaak just missed a double-double with nine kills and 12 digs. Sara Macek and Riley Hanson each chipped in eight kills as Macek hit .385 and Hanson hit .375.
 
Defensively, Emily McDonough was all over the court as she led all players with 16 of the team's 43 digs. She also chipped in a pair of service aces while Schlaak led the way with three.
 
Truman finished with just 25 kills as Jocelynn Livingston contributed six and Bailey O'Drobinak put up five. Setter Savvy Hughes added 14 assists while Kayla Bastian hit double digits with 10 digs.
 
Concordia hit the ground running as an early burst of seven points in a row helped build a quick 10-2 lead. The Bulldogs managed to stem the tide a bit from there but they were unable to pull closer than five the rest of the set. CSP eventually extended their lead to as many as nine as they took the first set 25-16.
 
The early parts of the second set were much more even as TSU led as late as 9-8 before CSP took control. The Golden Bears shifted things in their favor with an extended 15-3 run to build their largest advantage of the match at 23-12 before cruising to a 2-0 lead with a 25-19 set win in the second.
 
The momentum carried over into the third set as Concordia took nine of the first 10 points to build a comfortable cushion. Truman slowly chipped away as they pulled back within five at 16-11, but the Golden Bears turned it on down the stretch to win the set 25-16 and complete the sweep.
 
Concordia returns to the court at 4:30 p.m. in a rematch of Thursday night's match as they face #5 Western Washington (0-2) for the second time in as many days.