ST. PAUL, Minn. - The seventh-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (9-3, 3-1 NSIC) continues NSIC play on the road this weekend as they travel to Augustana (10-3, 3-1 NSIC) on Friday and #15 Wayne State (12-1, 3-1 NSIC) on Saturday for a pair of league contests.

AUGUSTANA SERIES HISTORY
Concordia enters Friday's contest with the Vikings with a record of 25-1 in the all-time series with the Vikings. Augustana's lone win came back in 1988 as CSP has won all 25 meetings since the turn of the century. While the Golden Bears have consistently come out on top against Augie, five of the last six meetings have gone more than three sets, with four of which going five sets as Concordia has had to come from behind in all four of those matches. The Golden Bears have won all 10 meetings between the two schools in Sioux Falls.

LAST MEETING VS AUGIE
Back on Nov. 2, 2018, Concordia put together a dominant effort in a sweep of Augustana on Parents Night at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears kept the Vikings off-balanced with a strong serving performance as they put up their third match with double digits in aces at 10. CSP's offense also took care of business with a .384 hitting percentage as they tallied 44 kills with six errors in a strong all-around effort. On the other side of the net, Augie finished the match at .227 hitting with just one ace.
 
Hope Schiller did a little bit of everything in the match as she matched her career best with five aces while also tallying a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs in the win. Elizabeth Mohr also matched a season high in aces with three to go along with 38 assists and five digs.
 
Offensively, Sara Macek was a force with 11 kills and no errors on 15 swings for a massive .733 hitting percentage. She also added three total blocks, including two solo blocks. Brooklyn Lewis matched Macek with 11 kills and three blocks while adding seven digs and an ace as well as a .417 hitting percentage.

WAYNE STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Saturday, the Golden Bears take on the Wildcats for the 47th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 33-13 against WSC heading into the matchup. Since Wayne State won seven of the first eight meetings of the series, Concordia has rattled off 32 wins in the past 37 contests. That stretch included 19 wins in a row for CSP spanning from 2003-2009. The last nine meetings have featured five regular season wins for Concordia while Wayne State has claimed two wins in three postseason meetings. In 17 trips to Wayne, CSP has gone 14-3 against the Wildcats.

LAST MEETING VS WSC
Back on Nov. 3, 2018, CSP closed out the regular season with a four-set loss to Wayne State at Gangelhoff Center.

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.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears split in their home-opening weekend as they fell to then-#4 Minnesota Duluth in three sets before knocking off then-#15 St. Cloud State in five sets.

With a pair of back-and-forth matches on the weekend, the statistics backed it up as CSP finished nearly even in almost every category over the two matches. Concordia finished the weekend at .221 hitting with 109 kills while their opponents tallied 110 kills while hitting .205. The Golden Bears also held a 17.0-14.0 advantage in total blocks while their opponents led 13-7 in service aces and 130-129 in digs.

Jasmine Mulvihill paced the squad with 3.88 kills per set with a .282 hitting percentage while Kennedy Brady ranked second with 2.57 kills per set. Tori Hanson finished with a team-best 5.12 digs per set while Erin Fallert followed with 3.12 digs per set as well as 2.25 kills per set.

IN THE POLLS
Following a 1-1 weekend against a pair of ranked opponents at home, the Golden Bears remained #7 in the polls 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 they have ranked outside the top-5 just seven weeks 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 heading into this year.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
After reaching the 1,000 career dig mark late in her sophomore season, junior libero Tori Hanson has started to move her way up in the career record book at Concordia. Hanson currently ranks 12th in DII-era history at CSP with 1,279 digs, putting her 19 away from moving into the top-10. She isn't the only Golden Bear piling up career statistics as Erin Fallert sits 162 digs shy of 1,000 with 838 and Sara Macek sits 204 kills shy of 1,000 with 796.