ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (12-2, 6-0 NSIC) continued their strong run of play as they won their ninth in a row in a sweep (25-18, 25-17, 25-14) of Sioux Falls (8-6, 3-3 NSIC) on Friday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
In addition to being the ninth straight win overall for CSP, it was also the Golden Bears' ninth straight win against the Cougars since they joined the NSIC. The win was Concordia's 10^th in 13 all-time meetings with USF.
 
For the second time in three matches, the Golden Bears finished with a season-best hitting percentage as they cruised to a mark of .351 as a team on the night as they finished with 47 kills and just 13 errors on 97 swings. The defense also did their job by holding the Cougars to .146 as a team in addition to collecting 46 digs compared to 33 for Sioux Falls. CSP also doubled up USF in service aces with a margin of 6-3.
 
Elizabeth Mohr played a big part in the offensive success as she tallied 42 digs (14.00 per set) to go along with six digs and a service ace. Erin Fallert was a prime beneficiary with 14 kills and a .444 hitting percentage while she also chipped in five digs and a block. The 14 kills were one shy of her career best.
 
Tori Hanson finished with over a third of the team's digs with 16 while she also led the team with three aces. Hope Schiller followed with nine digs while also finishing second on the team with 11 kills.
 
Both of CSP's middles were extremely efficient as Sydney Book committed just one error with nine kills on 12 swings for a .667 hitting percentage while Sara Macek had eight kills and one error on 13 swings for a .538 hitting percentage.
 
Bria Barfnecht provided a bright spot with nine digs and six kills for the Cougars as she led the team in both categories in the loss.
 
CSP jumped ahead with four of the first five points and six of the first eight to open the match. The Golden Bears remained out front until the Cougars evened it up at 11-11, but Concordia quickly rebuilt their advantage with four in a row. The lead would not shrink below three for the duration of the set as CSP finished on a 4-1 run to take the set 25-18.
 
It was another 4-1 start in the second set before USF responded to tie the score at 4-4 and again at 5-5. The momentum shifted heavily in Concordia's favor from there as seven straight went their way to put them ahead by a comfortable margin. The advantage ballooned all the way to nine at 17-8 before the Cougars trimmed the margin a bit down the stretch. Sioux Falls was unable to pull closer than five as CSP closed on a 5-2 run to win the set 25-17 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Cougars built their only lead of the match as they started off the third set with three of the first four points, but the Golden Bears wasted little time regaining their edge. CSP rattled off five straight points to take a 7-4 lead before running away with it later on in the set. With the score still within two at 9-7, Concordia strung together an impressive 12-1 run to push their lead all the way out to 13 at 21-8. The lead stayed in double digits from there as CSP finished off the sweep with a resounding 25-14 set win in the third.
 
The Golden Bears are back in action tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center as #10 Southwest Minnesota State comes to town.