ST. PAUL, Minn. - The third-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (19-4, 13-1 NSIC) returns home for a busy weekend as they host St. Cloud State (12-8, 8-6 NSIC) on Friday for Pink Night and #7 Minnesota Duluth (19-4, 12-2 NSIC) on Saturday for Roast the Dogs.

PINK NIGHT
Friday night's match against St. Cloud State will be a Pink Game put on by Concordia University Athletics. The team will be collecting donations for Hope Lodge – Minneapolis, which provides free housing for cancer patients and their families while undergoing treatment. The CSP Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) will be using the donations to purchase much needed supplies for the lodge.

ROAST THE DOGS
Saturday's meeting with Minnesota Duluth marks the annual Roast the Dogs. The first 200 fans will receive a free hot dog near the entrance outside of the Gangelhoff Center on a first come, first serve basis. Available while supplies last.

ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears are set to take on St. Cloud State for the 27th time in the all-time series on Friday night with CSP holding a record of 25-1 in the previous 26 meetings. After the Huskies picked up a sweep in the first ever meeting back in 1975, Concordia has rattled off 25 consecutive wins in the series, including 22 sweeps. Dating back to 2008, all but one match has ended in three sets with the lone set win for SCSU coming in St. Cloud in 2014. The last set win for the Huskies in St. Paul came all the way back in the 2007 season in a four-set win for CSP. Concordia has won all 10 meetings on their home court.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
Just over a year ago on Oct. 6, 2017, the Golden Bears made 20 straight NSIC road wins with a sweep at St. Cloud State.

The Golden Bear offense was nearly unstoppable on the night as they cleared the .400 mark hitting for the first time all season with a mark of .451. That percentage was the highest for CSP since the team hit .591 against Bemidji State back on Nov. 12 last season. The team committed just eight errors while grabbing 49 kills on 91 attempts.

While Brooklyn Lewis continued to be the most reliable source for kills with a match-best 15 to go along with a .345 hitting percentage, it was CSP's two middle blockers that stole the show. Sydney Book surpassed double figures in kills as she went 11-1-14 to finish with a near-perfect .714 hitting percentage. Shelby Seurer followed close behind as she did not commit a single error while picking up eight kills on 12 attempts to finish with a .667 mark as well as two aces in the victory. Hope Schiller also added eight kills while Mariya Sampson added seven more with a .538 hitting percentage.
 
Elizabeth Mohr was once again the driving force of the offense as she evenly distributed her 45 assists while also chipping in eight digs and an ace. In the back it was Schiller that paced the squad as she added to her eight kills with 13 digs, two blocks and an ace while Tori Hanson also finished in double figures with 11 digs.
 
MINNESOTA DULUTH SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters Saturday's meeting with a record of 25-28 in the all-time series with UMD, including a record of 13-14 in St. Paul. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 20 wins in the last 29 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 nine meetings overall, CSP has picked up six wins over Minnesota Duluth.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
A few weeks ago back on Oct. 3 in Duluth, Concordia fell in straight sets to Minnesota Duluth in non-conference action.

The Bulldog offense was impressive throughout the night as they hit .250 or better in all three sets to finish the match at .295 while limiting CSP to .225 on the night. UMD also held a 49-40 edge in kills and a 52-44 edge in digs to go along with a 12.0-7.0 edge in blocks as they controlled most aspects of the match.
 
Continuing her recent run of form, Sara Macek put up another solid offensive performance as she reached double figures in kills and hit better than .450 for the fourth match in a row. The middle blocker tallied 11 kills on just 16 attempts for a team-best .562 hitting percentage on the night. She also paced the squad with four blocks as well.
 
Brooklyn Lewis joined Macek in double figures with a team-high 12 kills while Hope Schiller added seven and Erin Fallert chipped in six. Schiller also had 11 digs while Fallert had 11. Tori Hanson led the team with 12 digs and three aces from the libero position while CSP's setter, Elizabeth Mohr, put up 37 assists and six digs in the loss.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia retained their spot in a tie with Northern State atop the NSIC standings as they picked up three wins over MSU, BSU and UMC on the week.

The Golden Bears more than doubled their opponents hitting percentage for the week with a .315 mark compared to .146 for their opponents to give them a 165-107 edge in kills in the three matches. CSP used a balanced attack throughout the week with five different players registering 2.00 kills per set or more and six different players averaging over 1.50 digs per set.

Sara Macek continued her strong stretch of play recently as she led the team with 4.27 kills per set while hitting .422 as well as providing 1.09 blocks per set on the week. Elizabeth Mohr collected 13.36 assists per set to lead an efficient offense while also adding 2.00 digs per set.

IN THE POLLS
After sitting at #4 in last week's AVCA Coaches Poll, CSP moved up to #3 this week after three wins last week. 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.

STATISTICAL LEADERS
Heading into the weekend, the Golden Bears rank near the top in the country in several areas as a team and as individuals.

CSP currently leads in the nation in kills per set at 15.16 and second in assists per set at 14.38. Elizabeth Mohr has played a big role in that success as her 13.11 assists per set ranks first in the country as well. Concordia also ranks fourth in hitting percentage with a .283 hitting percentage.

Brooklyn Lewis has led the way offensively as her 3.96 kills per set rank 25th in the nation (fifth in the NSIC) and her .359 hitting percentage ranks 43rd (ninth in the NSIC). Sara Macek registers in even higher in hitting percentage at .414, good for sixth in the nation and first in the league.

Tori Hanson also ranks sixth in the NSIC with 4.73 digs per set while also ranking fourth in the conference with 0.42 aces per set.