ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #1 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (4-0) remains on the road this weekend as they travel to Denver for the Colorado Premier Challenge. The Golden Bears are set to take on West Florida (3-1) and #3 Lewis (4-0) on Friday before playing two more contests on Saturday.
 
THE MATCHUPS
Concordia opens up play with a noon start against West Florida on the campus of MSU Denver on Friday before closing out the day at 7 p.m. against #3 Lewis, also at MSU Denver.
 
The Golden Bears' meeting with West Florida marks just the fourth meeting in the all-time series as CSP has gone 2-1 in the previous three meetings. Concordia grabbed three-set victories in both 2009 and 2010 in early season tournaments before the Argonauts claimed a four-set win in the Colorado Premier Challenge back in 2012.
 
Against Lewis, the Golden Bears have won all four meetings, including two sweeps last season. The Flyers have taken just one set from CSP in the four contests as they pushed the match to four sets back in 2012.
 
The most recent meeting came just nine months ago as the Golden Bears knocked off Lewis in straight sets in the national semifinals to advance to the title match against Alaska-Anchorage. CSP's offense shined in the semis as the team hit an efficient .402 with 48 kills on 97 swings on the night. Three different hitters finished with at least 11 kills as Kasey Williams spread the ball well in the win. Williams finished with 39 assists with six digs and three blocks on the night.
 
Emma Lange led the team with 14 kills and .462 hitting percentage with three digs and a pair of blocks while Anna Schlaak added another double-double to her collection with 13 kills and 11 digs as well. Schlaak also hit at a high percentage with mark of .455. Rounding out the players in double digits in kills was Mariya Sampson with 11 kills and a .409 hitting percentage while Emily McDonough matched Schlaak with 11 digs in the winning effort.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, Concordia extended their winning streak to 23 dating back to Oct. 14, 2016 as they won all four matches in the 2017 Terrace Hotel Classic. The Golden Bears opened up with a pair of sweeps on Friday as they knocked off #12 Western Washington and Florida Southern on Friday. CSP followed it up with a four-set victory over Central Washington before pulling off a dramatic come-from-behind five-set win over #17 Tampa.
 
CSP held edges in nearly every statistical category, including hitting percentage (.269-.222), kills (224-193), digs (239-212) and aces (20-7). The Golden Bears utilized much of their roster as eight different players averaged at least 2.50 kills or 2.50 digs on the weekend (Hope Schiller averaged higher in both).
 
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter the weekend as the reigning Colorado Premier Challenge champions after claiming their fifth tournament title last season. Prior to last season's tournament win, CSP also finished on top in Denver in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013.
 
Concordia faced off against a familiar foe in the championship match last season as they knocked off then-#5 Southwest Minnesota State in four sets. The Mustangs gave the Golden Bears a battle, but the Concordia offense proved to be too much as they hit .308 with 65 kills on 156 swings as a team in the win. SMSU managed the best hitting percentage against CSP on the season at .219 but the Golden Bears also won the serving battle (seven aces to four) as well as the digs battle (73-60) and the blocking battle (10.0-7.0).
 
IN THE POLLS
After going 4-0 on the opening weekend of the season, Concordia-St. Paul remained in the top spot in the week one AVCA Division II Preseason Coaches Poll, released by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Monday.
 
The week marks the 77th week since 2003 that they have ranked first in the AVCA Poll. The Golden Bears have ranked first at least one week every season dating back to 2007 and have spent all but one week inside the top-5 since October 2012. The last time that CSP ranked outside the top-10 was back in 2003.
 
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
On Tuesday, the Northern Sun (NSIC) released their first weekly release of the season and Concordia-St. Paul sophomore Sara Macek was named NSIC Player of the Week while junior Elizabeth Mohr was named NSIC Setter of the Week.
 
Macek led CSP with 3.27 kills per set (49 total) and a .450 hitting percentage in four wins as she collected double-digit kills in each of the final three matches, including a career-best 19 in a win over Central Washington. The sophomore hit at least .300 in all four matches and tied for the team lead with 0.73 blocks per set (4 solo blocks and seven block assists).
 
Mohr averaged 13.67 assists per set (205 total) in CSP's four wins over the weekend. She collected at least 46 assists in all four matches, including reaching 60-assist plateau for the first time in her career with 61 in Saturday's win over #17 Tampa. Mohr spread it out as she led the offense to a .269 hitting percentage while leading five different Golden Bears to averages at least 2.50 kills per set.