ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded #1 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (27-2) survived an opening round scare against eighth-seeded #21 Wayne State (19-12) in a five-setter on Wednesday night at Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears advance to face fourth-seeded #6 Minnesota Duluth (24-5) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the semifinals.
 
The Golden Bears bounced back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to claim the five-set victory. WSC controlled play in the first with a 25-18 win before CSP answered with a decisive 25-13 set win of their own in the second. WSC bounced back to pull within a set of victory with a 25-23 win in the third, but the Golden Bears stormed back to take the fourth 25-20 and the fifth 15-12.
 
CSP improved to 32-12 in the all-time series against the Wildcats as they also snapped Wayne State's two-match postseason winning streak against them in the process. Concordia also made it 12 straight wins overall as they head into the NSIC semifinals riding their longest winning streak of the season. In addition, the Golden Bears bumped their record to 10-0 in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament all-time as they moved to 22-4 in their 10 trips to the conference tourney.
 
While serving played a major role in Concordia's regular season sweep of the Wildcats, serving almost cost the Golden Bears on Wednesday night as they committed 16 service errors over the five sets. CSP did also manage to hold a 7-4 edge in service aces, however, while WSC committed six serving errors as well.
 
After seeing Wayne State hold a significant .355-.000 hitting edge in the opening set, the Golden Bears bounced back to outpace WSC in each of the final four sets offensively as they hit at least .286 in each. Overall, CSP finished the night with a .280-.221 edge to go along with a 76-50 advantage in kills. Wayne State, on the other hand, picked up a big 12.0-6.5 edge in blocks as their block gave the Concordia hitters trouble throughout the night.
 
Brooklyn Lewis' second half surge this season continued as she cleared 20 kills for the fourth time in seven matches, matching her career best with 26 kills set just 12 days ago. The junior committed just three errors on her 46 swings to put up a .500 hitting percentage to go along with two blocks.
 
Mariya Sampson added a season high with 18 kills as she fell two short of her career high of 20 on the night while also registered a career high with 16 kills on the night. Schiller also chipped in 17 digs to pick up the massive double-double.
 
Tori Hanson paced the back row as she led all players with 20 digs, surpassing the 20+ dig threshold for the sixth time this season. Erin Fallert and Taylor Soine joined in with double figures in digs as Fallert put up 15 and Soine put up 12. Fallert also added three aces in the win.
 
Leading the offense, Elizabeth Mohr compiled 60 assists along with nine digs to nearly capture the double-double as she for the third time on the year.
 
The Wildcats were led by Erin Gross and her 17 kills while Katie Stephens put up 13 kills and 15 digs on the night. Megan Gebhardt added another double-double with 46 assist and 17 digs as well.
 
With the two teams trading points in the first set, Concordia held a two point lead at 8-6 before the Wildcats rattled off five straight to build an 11-8 edge. CSP battled back to tie it up at 13-13, but Wayne State pulled away from there with eight of the next 10 points to pull ahead 21-15. The WSC lead did not shrink below five for the rest of the set as they took the opener 25-18.
 
Concordia turned the momentum heavily in their favor in the second as they opened up with a 6-0 run after WSC took the first point to jump ahead early. The Wildcats stemmed the tide to cut it to three at 11-8, but the Golden Bears put together another run, this time a 5-0 burst, to grow their lead to eight at 16-8. The advantage continued to grow from there as CSP's lead hit double figures at 20-10 before ballooning to as many as 12 at the final margin of 25-13.
 
Wayne State responded with the first three points and six of the first eight in the third to regain an edge, but CSP quickly tied it back up at 7-7. The Wildcats scored the next four in a row as they maintained a slight advantage for much of the rest of the set. Their lead sat at three at 22-19 before the Golden Bears scored the next two and four of five to tie it up at 23-23. WSC rebounded to grab the final two points to head into the fourth set just one set win away from pulling off the upset.
 
The fourth set featured five ties and a pair of lead changes as neither team able to build more than a four point edge until late. It was the Wildcats that struck first as they built a 9-5 lead before a 7-2 run flipped it in CSP's favor at 12-11. Concordia continued to cling to a slight lead down the stretch as WSC remained within two at 21-19 before the Golden Bears ended on a 4-1 run to force a fifth set with a 25-20 set win.
 
The Golden Bears appeared to take all the suspense out of the fifth set by scoring five of the first six, but the Wildcats fought their way back in it to set up a dramatic finish. Concordia's lead was four at 12-8, but Wayne State grabbed a huge three-point swing to cut the deficit down to one at 12-11. CSP responded with an even bigger two straight points to force match point before closing it out at 15-12.