ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (7-1, 0-0 NSIC) is set to host Upper Iowa (9-0, 0-0 NSIC) on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center before traveling to #11 Winona State (6-2, 0-0 NSIC) on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the opening weekend of NSIC play.

UPPER IOWA SERIES HISTORY
In the NSIC season opener on Thursday, the Golden Bears meet the Peacocks for the 17th time in program history as Concordia enters with a perfect record of 16-0 against UIU. Concordia has won 48 out of 49 sets against the Peacocks in those 16 previous meetings with the lone match extending beyond coming in a four-set win for CSP back in 2008.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
In the conference opener last season, the Golden Bears moved to 9-0 with a sweep on the road at Upper Iowa. The Golden Bears dominated at the net as they picked up 10.0 blocks and forced 20 attack errors to hold Upper Iowa to just .072 hitting on the night. On offense, CSP also delivered to a tune of .305 hitting while collecting 43 kills to go along with four service aces in the win. The offense was extremely balanced as three different hitters picked up 10 kills apiece while another added nine. Anna Pioske finished with a double-double as she added 11 digs to her 10 kills while Emma Lange filled the stat sheet with 10 kills, six blocks and four digs. Riley Hanson also finished with 10 kills while Anna Schlaak came within a kill of a double-double with nine kills and a team-best 12 digs.

WINONA STATE SERIES HISTORY
Saturday's contest in St. Paul between CSP and Winona State marks the 39th meeting between the two programs with Concordia holding a 30-8 edge in the 38 previous meetings. After the Warriors claimed wins in seven of the first nine contests betweent the two schools, the Golden Bears have dominated by going 28-1 against WSU since then. CSP had rattled off 24 straight wins in the series from 2001-2015 until Winona State claimed a four-set win on Sept. 19, 2015. Since then, Concordia has won the last four meetings, including three in the postseason.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on Dec. 2 in the Central Region semifinals, CSP claimed a four-set win over the Warriors to advance to the region title match. The match featured some dramatic swings of momentum as CSP rolled to win the first two sets before the Warriors stormed back to take the third and nearly steal the fourth to force a decisive fifth set. The action on the court was amplified by the crowd as large fan sections from both teams were loud from start to finish. It was a memorable night for Emma Lange as her first kill of the night put her at 1,000 kills in her career, making her the 18th player in program history to reach the mark. Lange finished the night with 12 kills, five digs and four blocks as she hit .310 in the win.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, after grabbing four-set wins in each of their first three matches in the Colorado Premier Challenge, CSP had their 26-match winning streak snapped by #2 SMSU in the title match.

The Golden Bears kicked off the weekend by knocking off West Florida and #3 Lewis on Friday before beating #6 Angelo State in the semifinals before falling to the Mustangs. CSP hit .230 as a team in the four matches while holding their opponents to .167 while also holding a 260-238 edge in digs and a 32.0-30.0 edge in total blocks.

Freshman Tori Hanson played a major role in the back row as she paced the team with 78 digs (4.88 per set) in Denver, grabbing 20+ in each of the final three matches of the weekend while Brooklyn Lewis led CSP with 61 kills (3.81 kills per set) over the weekend as she hit .255 and added eight total blocks (0.50 per set).

IN THE POLLS
After sitting in the top spot in the first two AVCA Polls, CSP dropped to #2 this week after falling to now-#1 SMSU in Denver. 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 now spent an incredible 77 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
Heading into this week, Concordia has gotten production from throughout their lineup with four different players that rank near the top of the NSIC in different statistical categories so far this year.

Setter Elizabeth Mohr leads the way in that regard as she leads the nation in assists per set as well as total assists as she has amassed an average of 13.06 assists per set while tallying 405 assists overall.
 
The Golden Bears' two middles have been extremely efficient with Sara Macek's .366 hitting percentage ranking seventh in the NSIC while Shelby Seurer's mark of .356 ranks eighth.

Tori Hanson rounds out the group as she ranks eighth in the league with 4.39 digs per set.