ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-2, 12-1 NSIC) travels west this weekend as they will take on Sioux Falls (13-5, 8-5 NSIC) on Friday night before a massive matchup against #1 Southwest Minnesota State (20-1, 12-1 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.

SIOUX FALLS SERIES HISTORY
On Friday, Concordia will face Sioux Falls for the 12th time in program history with the Golden Bears holding a record of 8-3 through the first 11 meetings. CSP has dominated the series since the Cougars joined the NSIC as the Golden Bears have won all seven conference meetings. USF last claimed victory against Concordia in 1999 in a sweep in St. Paul. In three trips to Sioux Falls, CSP has won all three contests.

LAST MEETING VS USF
In last season's meeting, senior libero Emily McDonough became the 14th player in CSP history to reach 1,000 digs as the Golden Bears picked up a sweep in St. Paul.

Concordia's defense was stifling as they held their opponent to a negative percentage for the first time since October 30th of last season as the mark of -.068 was the lowest mark allowed since Bemidji State hit -.134 against the Golden Bears back on Oct. 12, 2010. The offense wasn't far behind as they hit .351 as a team while hitting over .300 in all three sets. CSP finished with an edge of 37-19 in kills as well as edges of 39-26 in digs, 12.0-4.0 in blocks and 7-5 in service aces.

McDonough had a match-high 14 digs pushed her past the 1,000 dig mark in her career. Offensively, Anna Schlaak shined once again as her 13 kills were nearly double what any other player had in the match. She hit .407 and added two aces and five digs. Riley Hanson followed with seven kills while Emma Lange had six. Kasey Williams nearly double-double as her 26 assists and nine digs helped lead the team to victory.

SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Mustangs head into the weekend with an extensive history as Concordia has met SMSU more times than any other program on the volleyball court. In the previous 58 meetings, CSP holds an edge of 33-24-1 over Southwest Minnesota State with a 23-8 advantage in NSIC play. Concordia has found similar success both home and away in the series as they have gone 12-8 in Marshall compared to 18-11 in St. Paul. With both teams ranking among the best in the country in the last several years, Saturday's match marks the fifth time that they have met as the top two ranked teams in the country. CSP and SMSU have each won two of the previous four #1 vs. #2 meetings, with the underdog winning three of those four contests.

LAST MEETING VS SMSU
Back on Sept. 9, then-#1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team saw their winning streak snapped at 26 as they fell to then-#2 Southwest Minnesota State in the Colorado Premier Challenge championship match.

The high-powered Mustang attack proved to be too much for CSP as they registered in at .232 or better in all four sets to finish the match with a hitting percentage of .293 as a team. The Golden Bears also finished with marks of .263 or better in each of the final three sets en route to a mark of .240 overall, but it wasn't enough to claim the win. While efficiency favored SMSU, Concordia did manage to maintain an edge of 65-63 in kills and 80-68 in digs while matching Southwest Minnesota State's six aces in the match.

Tori Hanson grabbed 22 digs in the match, giving her three matches in a row with at least 20 digs. Overall for the weekend, the freshman averaged 4.88 digs per set to lead the team. Erin Fallert and Hope Schiller joined in double figures in digs with 15 and 13, respectively, with Schiller also falling a kill short of a double-double with nine. Offensively, all five of CSP's hitter collected at least nine kills, with four reaching double digits. It was once again the duo of Mariya Sampson and Brooklyn Lewis that led the way as they each tallied 16 kills while Sara Macek had 13 and Shelby Seurer had 10. Seurer was the most efficient of the bunch with a .471 hitting percentage on the night while Sampson also chipped in seven digs.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia grabbed a pair of wins over ranked opponents over the weekend, giving them six on the year, while hitting an impressive .367 on the weekend while holding their opponents to .176.

The Golden Bears served tough in the two wins as they tallied 13 aces in Friday's win over WSC before adding eight more against Augie to bring the total to 3.00 per set on the weekend. Four different hitters registered in with at least 3.29 kills per set as Concordia finished the two matches with 116 kills (16.57 per set).

Elizabeth Mohr and Shelby Seurer both received NSIC honors for their efforts as Mohr was named NSIC Setter of the Week and Seurer was named NSIC Offensive Player of the Week. Mohr averaged 14.00 assists per set while Seurer hit .639 with 3.43 kills per set.

IN THE POLLS
After sitting in the top spot in the first two AVCA Polls, CSP has ranked inside the top-3 every week this season. 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 spent an incredible 77 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.

NSIC LEADERS
Heading into the weekend, Concordia has gotten production from throughout their lineup with six different players that rank near the top of the NSIC in six different statistical categories so far this year.

Setter Elizabeth Mohr leads the way in that regard as she leads the nation in assists per set while also ranking second in total assists as she amassed an average of 13.40 assists per set while tallying 1032 assists overall heading into the week.
 
The Golden Bears' Sara Macek ranks third in the league with a .401 hitting percentage while Shelby Seurer follows close behind in seventh at .348. While Macek and Seurer have led the way in hitting percentage, Brooklyn Lewis has been the go-to hitter for the Golden Bears as her 3.73 kills per set rank sixth in the league while her 3.95 points per set rank ninth as well. Lewis has been even better in conference play as her 4.07 kills per set in league contests rank fourth in the NSIC.

Freshmen Erin Fallert and Tori Hanson round out the group as Fallert ranks seventh in the league with 0.39 aces per set Hanson ranks eighth with 4.43 digs per set and 10th with 0.35 aces per set.