MARSHALL, Minn. – The second-seeded #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (29-3) advanced to the NCAA Central Region Semifinal with a sweep of seventh-seeded #15 Central Oklahoma (29-6) on Thursday afternoon at PE Gym on the campus of tournament host Southwest Minnesota State University.

The Golden Bears will face the winner of third-seeded #6 Nebraska-Kearney and sixth-seeded Missouri Western State on Friday night at 5 p.m. CSP has won all three meetings all-time against UNK and have never faced MWSU heading into tomorrow night's potential meeting.
 
The Golden Bears made it seven wins in a row in NCAA Tournament play after last season's title run as they improved to 62-6 all-time in the tournament. Concordia also remained unbeaten in 13 NCAA region quarterfinals and 15 opening matches in the regional. CSP has now reached the NCAA region semifinal in each of the last 15 years and will look to book their 14^th trip to the region championship in the past 15 years in tomorrow night's contest. The win also bumped Concordia's record to 2-0 in the all-time series against the Bronchos as they knocked UCO out of the tournament for the second time in three years.
 
Head coach Brady Starkey said, "I thought we did a good job of controlling some nerves early in the match and showed some more nerves in the second game but balanced ourselves out from there. The match could have taken a different turn had they won that second game, but pulling that one off allowed us to relax a little bit more."


 
The Golden Bears benefited from a balanced offensive attack in which five different hitter collected at least seven kills with a hitting percentage of .294 or higher in the win. Elizabeth Mohr orchestrated the attack with 42 assists to go along with five digs and a pair of assists in what was an impressive showing.
 
"I thought our offense was pretty efficient and Elmo made some good decisions throughout the match," said Starkey about the offensive output.
 
Mariya Sampson led the group of hitters with 14 kills to go along with a .394 hitting percentage and three blocks while Hope Schiller and Brooklyn Lewis each chipped in nine kills apiece. Schiller finished just a kill shy of a double-double with 10 digs and three blocks while Lewis added four blocks. Sydney Book followed with eight kills and six blocks while Shelby Seurer had seven kills and five blocks.
 
CSP also made things difficult for Central Oklahoma at the net with 12.0 total blocks in the match as they limited UCO to a .238 hitting percentage in the match.
 
MIAA Player of the Year Taylor Bevis provided a bright spot for the Bronchos with a match-best 15 kills while Alexis Washington and Haley Deschenes each chipped in seven kills in the match. Dominiuq Lipari led all players in the match with 12 digs.
 
The first set featured back and forth play in the early going with six ties and four lead changes before the Golden Bears took control and built a lead. Down a pair at 7-5, Concordia rattled off four in a row to take the lead for good from the Bronchos. Central Oklahoma remained within one at 14-13 before a 5-1 burst out to 19-14, matching their largest edge in the set. UCO cut it back to two with three in a row, but CSP turned the momentum back in their favor with six of the final nine points to win the set 25-20.
 
With the score even at 5-5 in the second set, Central Oklahoma strung together five of six and nine of 11 to jump out to a 14-7 lead. The Bronchos held off a CSP run throughout the middle of the set as they remained out front by six at 20-14, but the Golden Bears quickly turned it on from there. Concordia took the next three points to force a UCO timeout before rattling off three of the next four to force another timeout at 21-20. The Bronchos righted the ship somewhat as they sat within a pair of points of taking the set at 23-21, but CSP responded with four in a row in emphatic fashion to win the set 25-23.
 
Concordia ran out to quick 3-0 and 6-3 leads in the third set before UCO battled back to turn it into a grind. In total, the teams traded leads twice with nine ties in the set as the differential remained within two pretty much throughout. The Bronchos took a 12-11 lead following a 3-0 run before the two teams split the next 10 points. Still down one at 17-16, CSP put together three straight points to take the lead for good at 19-17. Central Oklahoma kept the pressure on down the stretch as that lead did not grow larger than three as Concordia finished off the sweep with a 25-22 set win in the third.