PENSACOLA, Fla. – Top-seeded #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (33-3) advances to the NCAA Division II National Championship for the 10^th time in program history after sweeping fifth-seeded Rockhurst (32-8) on Friday night at UWF Field House. The Golden Bears will seek their ninth national title in 11 years tomorrow night as they face third-seeded #21 Florida Southern in the championship.
 
CSP remained unbeaten in 10 trips to the national semifinal as they bumped their overall record to 66-6 in the NCAA Tournament. Concordia has gone 9-1 in title matches all-time as they won seven straight from 2007-13 before adding another last season. Their lone loss in the national championship came in the first trip all the way back in 2003. CSP enters tomorrow's match with 11 straight wins in tournament play dating back to last year.
 
The Golden Bears and the Mocs have met five previous times heading into tomorrow's meeting with CSP claiming wins in all five meetings. The two teams met on the opening day of the season in the Terrace Hotel Classic with Concordia winning in straight sets.
 
While the match went just three sets, the Hawks forced the Golden Bears to earn every single point throughout the night with tremendous back row play. Rockhurst collected 67 digs while CSP followed close behind with 64 digs in an impressive showing of their own. Both teams also gave each other fits at the net as RU tallied 13.0 total blocks while Concordia picked up 12.0.


 
Concordia's hitters showed their resilience and persistence as they finished the night with 54 kills on 148 swings, including a massive 22 kills in the final set. The team finished at .250 hitting while they held Rockhurst to .138.
 
The driving force behind the offense was setter Elizabeth Mohr. Mohr collected a staggering 49 assists in just three sets (16.33 per set) to go along with 13 digs for her eighth double-double on the season. She wasn't the only Golden Bear to contribute a double-double as Hope Schiller added a team-best 15 kills to go along with 11 digs in the win. Incredibly, Schiller nearly finished with triple-double as she shattered her career high with eight blocks, including four solo blocks.
 
Brooklyn Lewis came up big at big moments as she tallied 13 kills on the night while Mariya Sampson added 10 more to give the team three hitters in double figures. On the defensive side, Tori Hanson paced the squad with 15 digs while Erin Fallert chipped in 13 as well. Shelby Seurer was big in the block with six blocks to go along with her eight kills.
 
Karli Reichert was the focal point of the Rockhurst offense with a match-best 16 kills while Anne Hellwege was all over the place as she led all players with 20 digs.
 
Early in the first set, Concordia grabbed four straight points to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead to set the tone. Rockhurst evened it up with three straight before a 5-1 run pushed their advantage out to 10-6. Still up two at 14-12, it was another run that put it out of reach as the Golden Bears rattled off seven in a row to balloon it out to 21-12. The lead did not shrink below six the rest of the way as CSP got off to a strong start with a 25-17 set win in the first.
 
The Golden Bears dug themselves an early hole in the second set as they quickly fell behind 5-0, but they quickly came storming back with seven of the next nine to tie it up 7-7. The Hawks regained the lead and spent much of the rest of the set clinging to a slim lead as they limited CSP from stringing together points. Concordia trailed by as many as four late in the set at 22-18 before finishing with a flurry on a 7-1 run to win the set 25-23.
 
The third set proved to be the most memorable as the two teams traded the lead five times with 13 ties as the set could not be decided within the standard 25 points. Rockhurst once again took an early lead with four of the first six points before holding a small edge for the next several points. With CSP out front 9-8 following a 3-0 run, the Hawks answered back with a 4-1 burst to push their lead to 13-10. It continued to grow from there as it reached four at 18-14 and again at 19-15 before the Golden Bears fought their way back in it. Concordia surged to tie it up at 20-20 before forcing match point at 24-22 in what was an extended 9-3 run, but the set was far from over. RU survived a pair of match points before putting the Golden Bears on the brink of dropping the set at 25-24 with a 3-0 run. Concordia then erased three set points the other way before regaining the lead at 29-28. Following a point for the Hawks, CSP took advantage of a pair of RU errors to win the set 31-29 and take the match in straight sets.