ST. PAUL, Minn. - The third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-4, 8-1 NSIC) returns home for homecoming weekend as they play host to UMary (3-14, 0-9 NSIC) on Friday and Minot State (9-9, 3-6 NSIC) on Saturday.

UNIVERSITY OF MARY SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Friday, the Golden Bears have gone a perfect 18-0 in the all-time series against the Marauders. Concordia has dominated the series as they have swept 16 of the 18 meetings overall. Prior to a four-setter in St. Paul last season, the only meeting that didn't end in a sweep was a five-set win for CSP in Bismarck on Sept. 28, 2007.

LAST MEETING VS UMARY
In the second-to-last match of the regular season last year, the Golden Bears swept the Marauders to claim the NSIC regular season title outright.

In that match, it was junior Hope Schiller who paced the Bears with 12 kills, hitting a match-high .450 (12-3-20) and adding four digs, two aces and a block. She was the only Golden Bear to reach double-figures in kills as five hitters had at least six kills in the match.

Seniors Shelby Seurer and Mariya Sampson combined for 15 kills and just three errors with Seurer delivering an 8-2-15 line (.400) with Sampson at 7-1-14 (.429). Sydney Book and Brooklyn Lewis each had six kills with Book adding four blocks.

The versatile attack was directed by setter Elizabeth Mohr who spread around her 39 assists to the five hitters at a .321 clip.

Tori Hanson and Erin Fallert led the defensive effort in the back with 12 and seven digs, respectively and played error free on the serve receive where Concordia had seven team aces and only two receiving errors.

MINOT STATE SERIES HISTORY
Saturday marks the ninth meeting in the all-time series with Minot State as the Golden Bears have won the first eight meetings. All eight previous meetings have come since Minot State joined the NSIC with CSP claiming sweeps in seven of the eight. The Beavers claimed their only set win in the series in a match in Minot back on Oct. 25, 2013.

LAST MEETING VS MINOT
In last year's meeting on Nov. 11, 2017, the Golden Bears finished off the regular season with a sweep of Minot State at the MSU Dome.

The Golden Bears' high-powered offense was too much for Minot State as they compiled a massive .482 hitting percentage with 47 kills and just seven errors on 83 attempts on the day. CSP hit at least .417 in all three sets while the Beavers were held below .100 in two of the three sets, finishing at .111 in the match. In addition to their dominance offensively, Concordia also held a 5-2 edge in service aces, a 4.0-1.0 edge in blocks and a 33-25 edge in digs as well.
 
Elizabeth Mohr spread the ball around throughout the match as five different hitters finished with between six and 12 kills as Mohr tallied 40 assists and eight digs in the win.
 
The leading beneficiary was Brooklyn Lewis as she grabbed a match-best 12 kills to go along with a solid .478 hitting percentage. Shelby Seurer added 10 kills on just 12 attempts for an incredible .833 hitting percentage while Sydney Book chipped in 10 more kills with a .444 hitting percentage.

LAST TIME OUT
On Wednesday night, the Golden Bears were swept by Minnesota Duluth on the road in a non-conference mid-week contest.

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.

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.

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 assists per set at 14.39 and second in kills per set at 15.11. Elizabeth Mohr has played a big role in that success as her 13.09 assists per set also ranks first in the country. Mohr also sits in sixth in the NSIC with 0.41 aces per set, tied with Hope Schiller. Concordia also ranks seventh in hitting percentage with a .262 hitting percentage.

Brooklyn Lewis has led the way offensively as her 4.18 kills per set rank 17th in the nation (third in the NSIC) and her .354 hitting percentage ranks 47th (ninth in the NSIC). Sara Macek registers in even higher in hitting percentage at .379, good for 23rd in the nation (fifth in the conference).

Tori Hanson also ranks 62nd in the country with 5.08 digs per set, ranking second in the NSIC, while also ranking ninth in the conference with 0.38 aces per set.