ST. PAUL, Minn. - The sixth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (21-6, 15-3 NSIC) will look to claim their 15th NSIC regular season title close out the regular season at home this weekend as they host Augustana (10-16, 5-13 NSIC) on Friday and Wayne State (21-7, 12-6 NSIC) on Saturday.

PARENT NIGHT & SENIOR DAY
In Friday night's meeting with Augustana, the CSP volleyball team will honor their parents with a brief pre-match ceremony on the court. Saturday's match against Wayne State will also feature pre-match ceremony for Senior Day as Concordia's four seniors, Hope Schiller, Brooklyn Lewis, Taylor Soine and Elizabeth Mohr, will all be playing their final regular season match at Gangelhoff Center

NSIC PICTURE
Concordia enters the final week of the conference slate in a three-way tie for first place in the NSIC at 15-3 along with Minnesota Duluth and Northern State while Southwest Minnesota State sits at 14-4 and Sioux Falls sits at 13-5. With the tiebreaker coming down to a point rating system, the Golden Bears unofficially hold the tiebreaker over UMD, NSU and SMSU if they were to finish in a tie with any of the three schools. If the Bulldogs and Wolves were to finish in a tie for the top spot, Minnesota Duluth would hold the tiebreaker because they defeated Northern State twice in league action. The NSIC Tournaments starts next Tuesday with the quarterfinals being played at the higher seed. The remaining four schools will advance to the highest remaining seed for the the semifinals and championship on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

AUGUSTANA SERIES HISTORY
Concordia enters Friday's contest with the Vikings with a record of 24-1 in the all-time series with the Vikings. Augustana's lone win came back in 1988 as CSP has won all 24 meetings since the turn of the century. While the Golden Bears have consistently come out on top against Augie, the last five meetings have gone more than three sets, with four of which going five sets as Concordia has had to come from behind in three of those four matches. The Golden Bears have won all 11 meetings between the two schools in St. Paul.

LAST MEETING VS AUGIE
Back on Sept. 15 in Sioux Falls, the Golden Bears survived for a five-set victory at Augustana in the first meeting of the season.

In a match where Concordia racked up 88 digs as a team, Tori Hanson provided a match-best and career-best 26 digs to lead the way. The sophomore eclipsed 20 digs for the fifth time in 13 matches as she passed her mark of 25 digs in the season opener.

Hanson had some help in the back row as five different Golden Bears reached double figures in digs in the win. Hope Schiller tallied 16 digs to go along with 15 kills, three aces and three blocks while Elizabeth Mohr also chipped in a double-double with 57 assists and 13 digs.
 
Offensively, Brooklyn Lewis was a dominant force with a season-high 26 kills on 45 swings as she hit .422 for the match. 

WAYNE STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Saturday, the Golden Bears take on the Wildcats for the 46th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 33-12 against WSC heading into the matchup. Since Wayne State won seven of the first eight meetings of the series, Concordia has rattled off 32 wins in the past 37 contests. That stretch included 19 wins in a row for CSP spanning from 2003-2009. The last eight meetings have featured five regular season wins for Concordia while Wayne State has claimed two wins in three postseason meetings. In 25 meetings at home, CSP has gone 18-7 against the Wildcats.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
In the first meeting of the year between the two schools back on Sept. 14, Concordia cruised to a sweep of the Wilcats in Wayne.

It was a fairly dominant performance across the board for the team as they held large advantages in nearly every statistical category. Concordia finished at .313 hitting, their highest mark of the season, while limiting Wayne State to .174. The edge in hitting led to a 43-27 edge in kills as well as a 49-37 edge in digs. The Golden Bears also put up their best serving performance of the year with a season-best 11 aces while the Wildcats finished with three.
 
Brooklyn Lewis accounted for nearly a third of the team's kills as she finished the night with 14 kills and a .435 hitting percentage in just 23 swings in an impressive effort in the win. Sara Macek was even more efficient as she hit .692 with no errors while collecting nine kills.
 
CSP saw a trio of players reach double figures in digs as Hope Schilled paced the squad with 14 digs, Tori Hanson added 12 and Erin Fallert chipped in 10. Schiller added three aces, two blocks and five kills while Hanson had two aces and Fallert had eight kills.

LAST TIME OUT
Concordia dropped two straight matches in the same season for the first time since September 2010 as they fell to Southwest Minnesota State and Sioux Falls on the road.

The Golden Bears saw their opponents collect an impressive .396 hitting percentage (110-21-225) on the weekend, capped off by a .456 mark for USF in Saturday's loss.

Brooklyn Lewis reached double figures in kills in both matches, including her third straight double-double on Friday night, as she led the team with 3.29 kills while also adding 2.14 digs. Hope Schiller finished second on the team in both kills per set at 2.57 and digs per set at 2.43 while putting up a team-leading three service aces.

IN THE POLLS
For the first time since September 2015, the Golden Bears fell out of the top-5 as they dropped to #6 in the latest poll. 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 they rank outside the top-5 for just the second time 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 sits in second in the nation in kills per set at 14.98 and second in assists per set at 14.28. Elizabeth Mohr has played a big role in that success as her 13.03 assists per set ranks second in the country as well. Concordia also ranks fourth in hitting percentage with a .279 hitting percentage.

Brooklyn Lewis has led the way offensively as her 3.82 kills per set rank 37th in the nation (eighth in the NSIC) and her .336 hitting percentage ranks 69th. Sara Macek registers in even higher in hitting percentage at .399, good for 11th in the nation and first in the league.

Tori Hanson also ranks eighth in the NSIC with 4.49 digs per set while also ranking sixth in the conference with 0.40 aces per set.

CHASING 1,000
Concordia-St. Paul senior right side Brooklyn Lewis has been a force over her two seasons as a regular starter and now finds herself within striking distance of joining the 1,000 kill club at CSP. The Kasson native sits at 966 kills heading into Friday night's match. Lewis would become the 21st Golden Bear to reach the mark, with Mariya Sampson the last to reach the mark as she reached it in last season's region tournament.