ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #6 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (22-7, 16-4 NSIC) closed out the regular season with a four-set (26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 15-25) loss to Wayne State (22-8, 16-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at Gangelhoff Center.
 
With Northern State's sweep Bemidji State, Minnesota Duluth's sweep of Minot State and Southwest Minnesota State's four set win over Winona State, the Golden Bears finish the regular season in a tie for third place in the NSIC with SMSU. With the Mustangs holding the tiebreaker over CSP, the Golden Bears will be the fourth seed and will host fifth-seeded Sioux Falls in the opening round of the NSIC Tournament at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.

The loss was Concordia's first on their home court this season as they dropped to 9-1 at home while also dropping to 33-13 all-time against the Wildcats.
 
 
Wayne State came out firing against the Golden Bears as they hit .359 or above in all three sets they won to finish the match at .353 with 58 kills as a team. It was their two outside hitters that did most of the damage with Katie Stephens leading all players with 20 kills while Alyssa Ballenger followed close behind with 18. Serving also played a factor for the Wildcats as they collected six aces and just three service errors while CSP had four aces and eight errors.
 
Concordia actually finished with more kills in the match as they tallied 69 in the loss, but they were unable to match WSC's efficiency as they committed 22 errors to put up a .296 hitting percentage.
 
Elizabeth Mohr spread the ball around as all five CSP hitters finished with at least 12 kills, led by Kennedy Brady's career-best 17. Brady shattered her previous career high of 12 as she hit an incredibly efficient .583 in the loss. Mohr put up her second best assist total of the season with 64 as she surpassed the 60-assist mark for the fifth time on the year.
 
It was also a career night for redshirt freshman Leah Damerow as she tripled her previous career best with 15 kills and just three errors to give her a .324 hitting percentage. Her three blocks trailed only Sara Macek's five on the day for Concordia. Macek also reached double figures in kills with 13 as she hit .435.
 
Hope Schiller added to her team with her 11^th double-double as she finished with 12 kills and 13 digs, matching Tori Hanson for the team lead with 13 digs in the match. Brooklyn Lewis also added 12 kills to bring her career total to 989.
 
The Golden Bears' only lead in the opening set came in the first few points until a 4-0 run for WSC gave them an 8-5 lead and shifted the momentum in their favor. The lead fluctuated between one and three until the 18-14 mark, but a 6-2 run had CSP back even at 20-20. Four of the next five went to the Wildcats to force set point at 24-21, but the Golden Bears kept it alive as they survived five set points to make it 26-26. Wayne State regained control by grabbing the final two points to win it 28-26.
 
The second set followed a similar script most of the way as the Wildcats held onto a slim lead pretty much throughout. With the Wayne State lead at three at 11-8, Concordia embarked on a 4-0 run to take the lead. The CSP lead hit two at 14-12 and again at 15-13 before WSC came storming back with seven of nine to take a 19-16 lead of their own. The Golden Bears pulled back to within one three more times in the set before another 4-1 run for the Wildcats put Wayne State up 2-0 in the match with a 25-21 set win.
 
Trailing 6-5 to start the third set, Concordia turned things around with a 5-1 run to jump ahead 10-7. Wayne State battled back to tie it up at 12-12, but another 5-1 run pushed the CSP lead out to 17-13. The lead remained three or more for the Golden Bears for the remainder of the set as they closed out on a 4-0 run to stay alive with a 25-17 win in the third.
 
Wayne State wasted little time setting the tone in the fourth set as they quickly doubled up the Golden Bears with six of the first nine points. Concordia closed to within one on several occasions until the midway point of the set when WSC started to pull away. With the score at 11-10 in favor of the Wildcats they grew their lead to six with a 5-0 run before further adding on. Still within four at 17-13, the Golden Bears managed just two more points the rest of the set as Wayne State finished on an 8-2 run to complete the four-set victory by taking the fourth 25-15.