MARSHALL, Minn. – For the 14^th time in 15 seasons, Concordia-St. Paul (30-3) will be playing for the NCAA Region Championship after the second-seeded and third-ranked Golden Bears defeated sixth-seeded Missouri Western State (25-11) in four sets on Friday night. CSP will face fifth-seeded #7 Minnesota Duluth in the region title tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at PE Gym on the campus of tournament host Southwest Minnesota State University.
 
The Golden Bears win secures an all-NSIC region final against fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked Minnesota Duluth for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight in Pensacola, Florida next week. In that match, Concordia will be looking for their 11^th Central Region Championship as the team has gone 10-3 in their 13 previous trips to the round of 16.
 
CSP enters the match with a record of 24-27 in the all-time series with UMD. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 19 wins in the last 27 meetings. This season, the Golden Bears and Bulldogs split the season series with each team picking up a win on their home court.

The two schools are no strangers to facing off in the region tournament with CSP and UMD meeting eight times prior in NCAA Tournament action. After the Bulldogs ousted the Golden Bears in the region final in two of the first three postseason meetings, Concordia has defeated Minnesota Duluth in each of the last five tourney meetings to bring their record to 6-2 in those contests. Six of the eight meetings have come in the region championship match, with CSP going 4-2 in those contests. The last such meeting was a four-set win in Duluth back in 2013 for the Golden Bears. UMD's last tournament win over CSP came in the 2006 Region Championship.

CSP bumped their record to 14-1 in NCAA region semifinals as the team has claimed a spot in the region championship every season since 2003 outside of 2014. In addition, Concordia improved their mark to 63-6 in the NCAA Tournament as they made it eight wins in a row in tourney play. The team's eight straight wins is their second longest winning streak in NCAA tournament play, following their 43-match winning streak from 2007-14.
 
While the match didn't go the full five sets, it couldn't have been much closer as CSP trailed by four or more in all four sets only to battle back to win three of the four. The Golden Bears were forced to earn every point as they finished with 65 kills compared to 54 for the Griffons. On the night, Concordia hit .263 while MWSU tallied a .248 mark.
 
Serving played a big role as the Golden Bears picked up six aces compared to two for Missouri Western, but the Griffons kept their serve on the court at a much higher rate with just one error while CSP had 13 service errors. In addition, Concordia held an 11.0-8.0 edge in blocks.


 
Brooklyn Lewis put up another big performance for the Golden Bears as she surpassed 20 kills for the fifth time in the last 11 matches as she led all players with 23 kills on a .327 hitting percentage. The junior also chipped in three digs and three blocks.
 
Mariya Sampson matched her output from the opening match with 14 kills as she hit .324 while Hope Schiller joined in double figures with 13 kills. Schiller added 12 digs to pick up her ninth double-double on the season. Sydney Book also chipped in nine kills in the match.
 
Along with Schiller, three more Golden Bears hit double digits in digs as Tori Hanson paced the team with 17 while Erin Fallert contributed 15 and Elizabeth Mohr had 13. Mohr grabbed her seventh double-double with 55 assists while she also added three blocks and two aces.
 
Stephanie Doak provided the Griffons with a dangerous weapon as she finished with 20 kills on 36 swings to compile a .472 hitting percentage while Kayla Ruff chipped in a match-best 22 digs. Lauren Murphy added a double-double with 45 assists and 12 digs.
 
After the Golden Bears built early two point leads at 2-0 and 5-3 before the Griffons jumped ahead 9-6 with a 6-1 run. The lead grew to four at 13-9 as MWSU limited CSP's ability to string together points to even it up. Concordia pulled back within one at 13-12, but the Griffons stemmed the tide and continued to hold onto a slim lead until the late stages. With Missouri Western still up a pair at 21-19, the Golden Bears scored the next three to take their first lead since the early going at 22-21. MWSU answered back with one to tie it back up, but the final three went in favor of CSP as they picked up a dramatic 25-22 set win in the first.
 
Concordia found themselves in an early hole in the second set as Missouri Western took the first three points, seven of the first nine and nine of the first 12 in a strong push. The Golden Bears cut it to three with three straight points and pulled within two at 10-8, but the Griffons quickly pushed it back to five at 14-9 with a 4-1 run of their own. CSP were right back on the offensive with five of the next six to shrink the margin to one, but another 4-1 run the other way gave the Griffons a 19-15 edge. Much like the first set, Concordia wouldn't go away as they took seven of 10 points to erase the four-point deficit and tie it at 22-22. The Griffons regained the lead with a block, but the run continued for the Golden Bears as they grabbed three points in a row to steal the set in dramatic fashion at 25-23 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
CSP looked to be in cruise control early in the third with a 3-0 run to start the set, but Missouri Western once again strung together points to build a comfortable lead. A 9-2 burst for the Griffons turned a 6-3 Concordia lead into a 12-8 MWSU lead as CSP was forced to burn a quick timeout. After a Golden Bear point snapped the streak, Missouri Western responded with seven of the next nine to match their largest lead of the night at 19-11. Concordia was unable to shrink the gap below six the rest of the way as the Griffons rolled to a 25-18 set win to extend the match another set.
 
In keeping with the trend of the match, Missouri Western put the Golden Bears behind early in the fourth set. MWSU built a three point cushion at 7-4 before extending it to four just a few points later at 10-6. Concordia didn't wait quite as long as they did in the first two sets to gain the lead as they rattled off an 8-1 run from there to go ahead 14-11. The Griffons quickly flipped it back in their favor, however, as they tied it back up at 16-16 and again at 17-17. The Golden Bears took over from that point with a huge 3-0 run capped by a solo block from Mohr put them out front 20-17. The lead would not shrink below two the rest of the set as Concordia survived to close out the match with a 25-20 set win in the fourth.