ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #2 Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (8-1, 1-0 NSIC) grabbed a four-set win in the NSIC season opener against Upper Iowa (9-1, 0-1 NSIC) on Thursday night at Gangelhoff Center. CSP took the first, second and fourth sets by scores of 25-13, 28-26 and 25-20 while the Peacocks took the third set 25-21.
 
After seeing their 26-match winning streak snapped in the non-conference finale against SMSU, the Golden Bears returned to the win column as they improved to 17-0 in the all-time series with the Peacocks. UIU made things interesting all night long as they took just their second set ever against Concordia and sent two more sets to the wire. The win also moves CSP to 14-1 in 15 conference opening matches under Brady Starkey with the lone loss coming in 2014 at Minnesota State.
 
The offense reached the .300 mark hitting for the second time this season as the efficient attack picked up 63 kills with just 15 errors on 160 attempts as four different players reached double figures in kills in the win. Leading the way was junior Brooklyn Lewis as she tied her career high with 17 kills to go along with a .368 hitting percentage. Mariya Sampson added 14 kills while Shelby Seurer and Sara Macek each had 11. Seurer tacked on six digs while Macek added five blocks.
 

Hope Schiller fell just a kill shy of making it five players in double figures with nine while she paced all players with 20 digs. She also added three blocks and an ace in what was a full stat line. Schiller was one of four Golden Bears to finish with at least 10 digs as Erin Fallert, Taylor Soine and Elizabeth Mohr all joined her in that group. Fallert finished with 13 while Soine had 12 and Mohr had 10. In addition to Mohr's 10 digs, she added 59 assists to complete the double-double.
 
Haley Weepie put up a big night for the Peacocks as she picked up a match-high 21 kills to go along with 15 digs to finish with a massive double-double in the losing effort. Ashley Larson chipped in 16 digs while Anna Winter had 14 kills as well.
 
The Golden Bears came out swinging in the first set with five of the first six points before continuing to expand their lead from there. The lead reached six at 10-4 following a 4-0 run and eventually hit double figures with another 4-0 run to make it 18-8. CSP led by eight or more the rest of the set as they cruised to a 25-13 win to open the match.
 
After a first set that featured no ties and no lead changes, the second set was much more back and forth with 15 ties and eight lead changes. CSP tried to pull away several times in the middle of the set as they pushed their lead to three at 11-8, 14-11 and 15-12 but each time Upper Iowa closed the gap to pull back even. UIU took their first lead of the match at 16-15 and led again at 19-18 before CSP jumped back out front. The Golden Bears forced set point at 24-23 but saw the momentum shifted the other way with two straight points in favor of the Peacocks to face a set point on the other side. CSP rebounded with two points of their own to force set point at 26-25 and again at 27-26 before taking the set 28-26.
 
Concordia held a slight lead through much of the early portion of the third as they looked to close out the Peacocks in straight sets, but UIU fought back to keep the match alive. A 4-0 Upper Iowa burst turned a 9-7 CSP lead into a 11-9 UIU lead. The two teams went back and forth trading points from there as the score remained tied at 21-21, but the Peacocks rattled off four in a row to take the set 25-21 and extend the match to a fourth set.
 
With just a point point advantage at 6-5 early in the fourth, Concordia regained control with six of seven points to push that advantage out to 12-6 and give themselves some breathing room. The lead would not shrink below the three for the rest of the set as the Golden Bears held off the comeback attempt. The lead grew to as many as seven in the set, including at 24-17 before CSP closed it out with a 25-20 set win in the fourth.
 
The Golden Bears hit the road for the first time in the conference season this Saturday with a 4 p.m. matchup at #11 Winona State. CSP will then return home for another mid-week contest next Tuesday against Minnesota State.