ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-3, 8-1 NSIC) is set for a massive non-conference road meeting with #5 Minnesota Duluth (14-3, 8-1 NSIC) on Wednesday night in Duluth.
 
MINNESOTA DULUTH SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters the week with a record of 25-27 in the all-time series with UMD, including a record of 10-13 in Duluth. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 20 wins in the last 28 meetings. Last season, the Golden Bears claimed a season series win as they took two out of the three meetings, winning both postseason meetings. In the past eight meetings overall, CSP has picked up six wins over Minnesota Duluth.
 
LAST MEETING VS UMD
In last year's NCAA Central Region Championship in Marshall, the second-seeded then-#3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team claimed their 11th NSIC Central Region Championship in program history with a four-set win over fifth-seeded then-#7 Minnesota Duluth.
 
The Golden Bears were firing on all cylinders in the title match as they hit over .300 in three of the four sets against a solid UMD defense while holding their high-powered offense to below .250 in all four sets. Overall in the match, Concordia put up 58 kills with 18 errors on 136 swings for a .294 hitting percentage while Minnesota Duluth finished with 52 kills and 25 errors on 147 swings for a .184 mark.
 
Elizabeth Mohr got all of her hitters involved as the team had five players with at least seven kills, including four with 11 or more. Mohr made it eight double-doubles on the season with an even 50 assists and 11 digs to go along with four blocks and an ace.
 
Brooklyn Lewis and Mariya Sampson combined to pace the squad as they each collected 14 kills in the match. Lewis did it with a solid .455 hitting percentage while Sampson chipped in four digs and three blocks.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Golden Bears saw their 10 match winning streak come to a close on Friday night as they dropped their first match of the conference season at Northern State. Concordia bounced back with a sweep on Saturday to continue their streak of avoiding back-to-back losses in the same season since 2010. CSP held a large 16.88-10.38 edge in kills per set as well as a .277-.196 edge in hitting percentage and 17.38-15.12 edge in digs per set.
 
Sara Macek was a force throughout the weekend as she tallied a team-best 5.12 kills per set (41 total kills) with a .507 hitting percentage to go along with 0.50 blocks per set over the two matches. Elizabeth Mohr put up massive assists totals as she finished with 14.25 assists (114 total assists) as well as 2.50 digs (20 total) and 0.38 aces (three total) over the eight sets played.
 
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
Minnesota Duluth enter's Wednesday's contest with an identical record to the Golden Bears, going 14-3 overall and 8-1 in NSIC play so far. After dropping back-to-back matches to Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan on Aug. 31, the Bulldogs have rattled off 10 wins in 11 contests with their lone loss coming in a sweep at St. Cloud on Sept. 11. UMD picked up sweeps of Augustana and Wayne State last weekend.
 
IN THE POLLS
After spending last week in the top spot in the AVCA Coaches Poll, CSP dropped to #3 in the poll following their loss to now-#2 Northern State on Friday. 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 spent an incredible 83 weeks at #1 since they debuted there in the 2004 preseason poll. Since the 2007 season, CSP has ranked #1 at least once every season.