ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (15-4, 9-1 NSIC) kicked off their three-game homestand with a sweep (25-13, 25-23, 25-16) of University of Mary (3-15, 0-10 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears continued their dominance of the Marauders as they improved to 19-0 in the all-time series, picking up their 17^th sweep in 19 meetings.
 
It was a bit of a quiet night offensively on both sides of the net as the two teams combined for 70 kills on the night. Concordia's defense was especially stifling as they limited Mary to .086 while hitting .255 themselves. Concordia also held a 44-35 edge in digs and a 9.0-7.0 edge in blocks as well.
 
Sara Macek once again led the offense as she tallied a match-best 13 kills on just 23 swings to finish with a .435 hitting percentage. She also led the team with five blocks while also tallying an ace.
 
Brooklyn Lewis also hit double digits with 10 kills while Sydney Book and Hope Schiller each chipped in seven kills and Kennedy Brady added a career-best six kills.
 
Tori Hanson was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in digs as she registered 13 while Taylor Soine put up eight and Schiller had seven. Elizabeth Mohr also had seven digs to go along with 39 assists and a pair of blocks.
 
Geovana Almeida matched Hanson with 13 digs for a match high to lead the Marauders while Natalia Cruz and Katja Berge each had seven kills in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears set the tone from the start with five of the first seven points and seven of the first 10 to pull ahead early. With the Marauders still within three at 10-7, CSP rattled off an 8-1 run to push their lead to double figures at 18-8 before pushing it even further. The lead hit 12 at 22-10 as Concordia finished off the set with the same margin at 25-13.
 
UMary stunned CSP early in the second set by opening on a 6-2 run before further adding to their lead. The Marauders doubled their lead with another 6-2 burst to make it 12-4 as they maintained a comfortable lead until the 18-11 mark. The Golden Bears came to life from there with six straight points to close the gap to one before continuing the run with three more in a row after a point for UMary to take the lead at 20-19. Concordia pulled ahead by two at 23-21 before the Marauders tied it back up with two straight points, but CSP grabbed the next two points to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-23 set win.
 
The Marauders jumped ahead early again in the third with five of the first seven points, but Concordia quickly turned the momentum with a big 9-0 run to take the lead for good at 11-5. The lead was cut back to four at 12-8 before the Golden Bears started to pull away with a 3-0 run and another 4-0 run two points later to make it 20-12. CSP held a lead of six or more the rest of the way as they finished off the sweep with a 25-16 set win.
 
The Golden Bears return to Gangelhoff Center tomorrow evening for a 5 p.m. start against Minot State on Homecoming. CSP will also remain home for a Tuesday night meeting with Minnesota State at 6 p.m.