ST. PAUL, Minn. - For the second straight night, #2 Concordia-St. Paul (11-1, 4-0 NSIC) battled through a slow start, but were able to persist for a straight-set victory over Minot State (3-9, 0-4 NSIC) on Friday evening at Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears, winners of four straight, remain at home on Saturday with a 2 p.m. match against U-Mary to close out a three game home set this week.

Sophomore middle blocker Sara Macek had a big night for the Bears, hammering 12 kills in 16 swings with just one error (.688).

The Beavers scored four of the first five points of the match and carried a four point lead into the middle of the set, leading 10-6. Macek sparked the Bears to a 7-1 run with back-to-back kills to claim their first lead of the night, 13-11. From there, CSP didn't relinquish the lead the rest of the set, breaking a slim 16-15 lead by scoring seven consecutive points en route to a 25-19 first set win.

Minot State continued to compete with CSP the rest of the night. Although Minot led by as many as four in that opening set, there would be only one tie and one lead change. In sets two and three, the teams jostled with six ties and three lead changes.

But the Golden Bears responded to Minot's 2-1 second set lead with an 8-1 run for a 10-3 lead in cruising to take the 2-0 lead. In the third, Minot was able to pull out to a 5-4 lead before CSP made its run in opening up a 10-6 advantage. While the 6-1 spurt helped put enough distance in the deciding set, it was a 9-0 run on freshman Erin Fallert's serve that included three aces by the rookie to propel CSP to a 22-10 lead before closing out the match 25-14.

Three Golden Bear hitters terminated at a .400 or better clip as juniors outside hitters Brooklyn Lewis and Hope Schiller each had nine kills while hitting .467 and .400. Collectively with Macek, the trio had just four errors on 51 swings with 30 kills. Schiller also produced a match-high 16 digs and had a pair of aces.

Concordia was able to hit .330 as a team behind the setting from junior Elizabeth Mohr who spread out 33 assists on the night.

Minot State was led by Brileigh Boyce and Shelby Spuller with seven kills each while Kelsey Dewulf had 27 assists and Karli Koza had 14 digs.