ST. PAUL, Minn. - The top-seeded #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (26-2) will play host to eighth-seeded #21 Wayne State (19-11) in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament on Wednesday night at Gangelhoff Center.

TICKET INFORMATION
In the NSIC Tournament, ticket prices are as follows: Adult tickets are $10, senior tickets are $8, student tickets (all schools) are $2 and children five and under are free.

WAYNE STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Wednesday, the Golden Bears take on the Wildcats for the 44th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 31-12 against WSC heading into the matchup. Since Wayne State won seven of the first eight meetings of the series, Concordia has rattled off 30 wins in the past 35 contests. That stretch included 19 wins in a row for CSP spanning from 2003-2009. The last six meetings have featured four regular season wins for Concordia while Wayne State has claimed wins in both of the postseason meetings. On their home court, CSP has gone 17-7 against the Wildcats.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
Back on Oct. 20, the Golden Bears used 13 service aces to keep Wayne State out of system throughout the 61 minute straight set victory.

Junior setter Elizabeth Mohr led the team with six service aces on the night and set the attack to a .418 team hitting percentage (46-8-91) as the Bears hit at least .400 in each set. She also added seven digs on the defensive side as the Wildcats managed to hit just .070 (17-11-86) when they were able to return CSP's serve.

In addition to the aces, Concordia's serve played a noticeable role in the outcome as the Wildcats struggled with the return with numerous over passes in each set, leading to decisive kills on the CSP offensive end.

Mariya Sampson paced all CSP hitters with 14 kills as she did not commit an error on her 26 attempts to put up a .538 hitting percentage on the night. Brooklyn Lewis added 11 kills and no errors on 19 swings to eclipse Sampson's mark with a .579 hitting percentage of her own. Hope Schiller fell two kills shy of a double-double with eight kills and 15 digs while Tori Hanson added 12 digs as well.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Entering this year, Concordia has gone 21-4 overall in the conference tournament in nine previous trips. In those previous trips, CSP has reached the title match seven times and have won five titles (2004, 2005, 2006, 2015 and 2016). The Golden Bears have gone a perfect 9-0 in opening round matches as they have advanced to at least the semifinals every year. Last season, Concordia knocked off Minnesota State, Winona State and Southwest Minnesota State en route to claiming their second title in as many years.

LAST TIME OUT
CSP matched their best conference win total since 2010 as they claimed their 14th NSIC title in the past 15 years outright with a pair of sweeps of U-Mary and Minot State.

The Golden Bears closed out the regular season on an 11 match winning streak to help grab the top spot in the NSIC Tournament. CSP hit an impressive .401 for the weekend while holding their opponents to .135 in the two matches.

Shelby Seurer tallied 18 kills (3.00 per set) while committing just two errors to finish with an efficient .593 hitting percentage to go along with five blocks (0.83 per set). Tori Hanson paced the squad with 25 digs (4.17 per set) while helping the defense hold opponents to a .135 hitting percentage. Elizabeth Mohr also compiled 79 assists (13.17 per set) while helping the team to 14.33 kills per set on the weekend.

IN THE POLLS
After sitting in the top spot in the first two AVCA Polls, CSP returned to the top spot in each of the past three weeks after knocking off then-#1 SMSU on Oct. 28th. 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 80 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
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) released the Volleyball All-NSIC Teams and Concordia-St. Paul had five players earn the honor while head coach Brady Starkey was named NSIC Coach of the Year. Brooklyn Lewis, Shelby Seurer, Mariya Sampson and Elizabth Mohr were all First Team selections while Hope Schiller was a Second Team selection. Concordia matches its total of five selections to All-NSIC teams from the past two seasons, falling one shy of the record of six back in 2008. The Golden Bears also had five selections in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010.

NSIC LEADERS
Heading into the postseason, Concordia has gotten production from throughout their lineup with six different players that rank near the top of the NSIC in seven different statistical categories 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 13.35 assists per set while tallying 1362 assists overall heading into the week.
 
The Golden Bears' Sydney Book ranks fifth in the league with a .385 hitting percentage while Shelby Seurer follows close behind in seventh at .365. While Book and Seurer have led the way in hitting percentage, Brooklyn Lewis has been the go-to hitter for the Golden Bears as her 3.94 kills per set rank fourth in the league while her 4.22 points per set rank sixth as well. Lewis was even better in conference play as her 4.25 kills per set in league contests ranked third in the NSIC and her .352 hitting percentage ranked 10th.
 
Freshmen Erin Fallert and Tori Hanson round out the group as Fallert ranks sixth in the league with 0.37 aces while Hanson ranks ninth with 4.19 digs per set.