ST. PAUL, Minn. – The fourth-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (17-4, 11-1 NSIC) rode another big night from Sara Macek to take down Minnesota State (13-7, 6-6 NSIC) in four sets (25-21, 23-25, 25-14, 25-18) on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
For the seventh match in a row, Sara Macek surpassed double digits in kills with a .435 or better hitting percentage as she grabbed 23 of the team's 58 kills on night with a .436 hitting percentage. The 23 kills fell three shy of her career best set back on Sept. 28 against Northern State.
 
Elizabeth Mohr took advantage of a red hot Macek as she tallied 54 assists to go along with five digs and a pair of blocks while leading the team to hit .285 on the night. Brooklyn Lewis joined Macek in double figures with 11 kills while Sydney Book added nine.
 
Tori Hanson and Hope Schiller both reached double figures in digs with 12 for Hanson and 10 from Schiller while Erin Fallert fell one short with nine.
 
Alivia Garbe and Morgan Olson each registered 15+ kills for the Mavericks as Garbe led the squad with 17 and Olson added 15. Mara Quam chipped in a match-best 13 digs in the loss.
 
The win was the 12^th in a row in the all-time series for the Golden Bears as they registered their 30^th win in 34 meetings in the series, remaining unbeaten on their home court against the Mavericks. CSP held MSU to .165 on the night while also holding a 51-47 advantage in digs as well as a 4-0 advantage in service aces.
 
The Mavericks put the Golden Bears in an early hole by scoring the first three points of the match, but CSP quickly responded with four in a row to take the lead before adding to it with a 4-1 run to make it 10-6 a few points later. Minnesota State battled back to tie it up at 13-13 before temporarily regaining the lead at 16-15, but another 4-0 burst in favor of Concordia put the Golden Bears back out front at 19-16. CSP maintained a slim lead for the duration of the set before eventually settling with a 25-21 set win in the first.
 
It was another fast start for MSU in the second set as they opened with four of the first five points and eight of the first 11. The Mavericks still held a five point cushion at 11-6 before the Golden Bears came to life. CSP scored six straight points to jump ahead 12-11 before growing their lead to three at 15-12. The two teams went back and forth with Concordia hanging onto a thin advantage until the 21-18 mark, but it was all Minnesota State from there. CSP managed just two more points the rest of the way in the set as the Mavericks took the lead at 23-22 before winning the set 25-23.
 
After Minnesota State scored the first point of the third, Concordia hammered out an 11-2 run to take control early. CSP continued to tack on more to the lead as it reached double figures at the 15-5 mark. The lead did not shrink below eight and grew to as many as 12 before the Golden Bears regained the lead in the match with a 25-14 set win.
 
Neither team was able to build much of an advantage in the fourth set until a 4-0 run turned a 10-9 MSU lead into a 13-10 CSP lead. The Mavericks managed to even it up at 13-13 with three points in a row, but Concordia answered back with a massive 7-0 run to put it out of reach. The gap shrunk back to four, but that was all the closer it would be as the Golden Bears cruised to take the set 25-18 and win the match 3-1.
 
The Golden Bears will make the trek north this weekend with contests at Bemidji State on Friday and Minnesota Crookston on Saturday.