ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fourth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (16-4, 10-1 NSIC) wraps up a quick three-match homestand on Tuesday night as Minnesota State (13-6, 6-5 NSIC) comes to town. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Tuesday night's meeting with the Mavericks with a 29-4 record in 33 previous matchups. While Concordia has dominated on their home court with a record of 14-0, CSP has also had success in Mankato as they have claimed 12 wins in 15 trips. Concordia has been especially successful in recent years in the series as they have registered 11 consecutive wins dating back to the 2014 season. MSU's last win in the series came back on Sept. 16, 2014 in a four-setter in Mankato.
LAST MEETING VS MSU
Back on Sept. 11, CSP picked up a road sweep of Minnesota State as
Hope Schiller became the 18th player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs.
Schiller picked up six digs in the match to bring her career total to 1,003, making her the first CSP player since Kasey Williams in 2016 to reach 1,000. Anna Schlaak and Emily McDonough both reached the mark that season as well. In addition to Schiller's work in the back row, the senior also paced the Golden Bears on the night with 12 kills.
As a team, Concordia was forced to grind out the victory as they overcame 10.0 Minnesota State blocks to finish with a .255 hitting percentage and 44 kills. The CSP defense held MSU to .168 and 34 kills on the night as the Golden Bears also added four aces while allowing none.
While Schiller led the way offensively,
Brooklyn Lewis and
Erin Fallert each added nine kills apiece in the win while Fallert also chipped in seven digs.
Sydney Book added an extremely efficient performance with a .615 hitting percentage as she finished with eight kills.
Elizabeth Mohr did a little bit of everything as she assisted on 41 of the team's 44 kills to go along with six digs and three service aces to put up a full stat line.
Tori Hanson also contributed six digs and an ace.
LAST TIME OUT
After dropping a non-conference contest on Wednesday night at UMD, Concordia bounced back to pick up a pair of sweeps over Mary and MiSU over the weekend.
The Golden Bears collected an extremely efficient .338 hitting percentage with 135 kills compared to 36 errors on the week while holding opponents to 102 kills, 47 errors and a .192 hitting percentage. In Saturday's sweep of Minot State, CSP set a single-match school record with a .600 hitting percentage as they committed just three errors compared to 51 kills on 80 swings in the match.
Sara Macek was consistently dominant as she collected at least 11 kills while hitting .435 or better in all three matches to finish with 4.44 kills per set and a .583 hitting percentage for the week.
Elizabeth Mohr orchestrated an efficient CSP offense with 12.78 assists per set (115 total assists) to go along with 16 digs over the three matches.
IN THE POLLS
After sitting in the top spot in the AVCA Coaches Poll two weeks ago, CSP dropped to #4 this 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.
