ST. PAUL, Minn. – The third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-2, 9-1 NSIC) cruised to a sweep of Bemidji State (3-16, 0-10 NSIC) in their return to Gangelhoff Center on Friday night. The Golden Bears took the three sets 25-19, 25-14 and 25-7.
 
CSP made it 30 wins in a row over the Beavers as the Golden Bears have not dropped a match against BSU dating back to the 2002 season. The win moves Concordia to 32-8-1 in the all-time series, including 18-3 in St. Paul.
 
For the 14^th time in program history, and the first time this season, the Golden Bears surpassed the .500 mark hitting as they finished the night at .506. CSP reached the mark for the first time since setting a program record of .591 against Bemidji State back on Nov. 12, 2016. The Golden Bears got better as the match went on, going from .387 in the first set to .516 in the second and a staggering .652 in the third. Concordia finished the match with 49 kills and just six errors on their 84 swings.
 
The Golden Bear defense also made life tough for the Beavers as they compiled 9.0 blocks and held BSU to a .126 hitting percentage for the match. CSP also held a decisive 7-1 edge in service aces as well as a 41-27 edge in digs.
 
It was a balanced attack for Concordia as six different players registered in with at least five kills, including four that hit over .500 for the match. Brooklyn Lewis once again led the team with 11 kills as she hit .625 to go along with four blocks.
 
Perhaps most impressively, sophomore Sydney Book put together a near perfect performance with 10 kills on just 12 swings as she finished with a staggering .833 hitting percentage. She also played a major role at the net as she added a career-best seven blocks in the win.
 
Mariya Sampson contributed eight kills and a .412 hitting percentage while Shelby Seurer hit .583 with seven kills. Hope Schiller also flirted with a triple-double with six kills, eight digs and career-high six blocks while Erin Fallert hit .833 with five kills and eight digs as well.
 
Tori Hanson also put together a solid night with a match-high 17 digs and four service aces while Elizabeth Mohr finished with 40 assists and five digs.
 
The first set proved to be competitive as it featured six ties and three lead changes throughout. The score remained tied at 8-8 before a 7-3 run pushed the Golden Bears ahead 15-11. BSU pulled back within two at 17-15 before a four point burst matched Concordia's largest lead of the night at 21-15 before the Golden Bears cruised to a 25-19 set win.
 
The second set began in a similar way with the score tied at 6-6 before a 4-0 run gave Concordia a 10-6 edge. The Beavers closed the gap again as they made it 11-10 following a 4-1 run, but CSP grew their lead out to five at 16-11 with five of the next six points. The run continued from there as the Golden Bears gradually increased their lead to double digits at the final margin of 25-14.
 
The Golden Bears took control from the beginning in the third set as they stormed out to a 7-2 lead. With the lead still at five at 9-4, CSP embarked on a 9-1 run to extend the advantage out to 18-5. Bemidji State would score just two more points as Concordia completed the sweep by taking the third set by a score of 25-7.
 
Concordia is back in action at Gangelhoff Center tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. as they play host to Minnesota Crookston.