ST. PAUL, Minn. – The seventh-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (17-4, 11-2 NSIC) picked up a huge NSIC win with a sweep (25-22, 25-20, 25-20) of third-ranked Northern State (18-3, 11-2 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears move into a tie for second in the NSIC standings with the Wolves as both teams sit a game back of Minnesota Duluth in the top spot with seven conference matches to play. The win also pushes CSP to 34-9 in the all-time series as Concordia made it 32 wins in the past 34 meetings dating back to 2003. Concordia also registered their seventh win over a ranked opponent on the year with the victory.
The CSP block caused problems for the Wolves all night as the Golden Bears tallied 13.0 total blocks as a team, their second-most on the team. The total was one shy of the program record in the DII-era in a three-set match as it was their largest total since 2010.
Sara Macek was a big contributor to that effort with a career-high eight blocks in the win. She was not the only one to contribute, however, as six different players registered at least two blocks in the win.
Overall, the Golden Bears held the Wolves to .150 hitting for the night while finishing with a mark of .230 themselves. CSP also held a 7-2 edge in aces in the win.
Tori Hanson did a little bit of everything as she finished the night with a team-best 14 digs while also adding seven assists and three aces while
Makenna Berger also reached double figures with 11 digs in the win.
Payton Nutter fell a dig shy of a double-double with 29 assists and nine digs while also contributing a couple of blocks to support the effort.
Jasmine Mulvihill put together a strong offensive performance to pace all players with 16 kills on the night as she added eight digs, three blocks and two aces in a full stat line.
Erin Fallert followed with eight kills to go along with five digs, four blocks and two aces to help the effort as well.
Laura Snyder led the Wolves with 13 kills while Ashley Rozell double-doubled with 37 assists and 10 digs in the loss.
It was the Golden Bears that opened the scoring with the first three points of the match, but the Wolves quickly turned the tide with seven of the next nine to take the lead at 7-5. That NSU lead grew as a 4-0 run gave them a 14-9 edge midway through the set. The advantage grew to as many as six at 17-11, but the Golden Bears put together a run of their own, an 8-2 burst, to tie it up at 19-19. Northern State regained the lead with the next point, but it was all CSP from there as the Golden Bears rattled off a crucial 6-2 run to win the first set 25-22.
The Wolves flipped the scripts to start the second set as they started with three of the first four before Concordia answered with five in a row to take a 6-3 lead. CSP continued to maintain a slim lead until Northern tied it up at 11-11, but the Golden Bears were once again back in front from there. With Concordia still leading 16-14, Northern State jumped out front for the first time since the opening few points with four straight, but that proved to be short-lived as CSP put up five straight to take the lead back at 23-18. The two teams traded the last few points as Concordia took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 set win.
Concordia took control early in the third as they scored three of the first four and eight of the first 12 to build a comfortable advantage. It would be a lead they would not relinquish as they a lead of a few points throughout to complete the sweep. The Wolves found themselves within two as late as 16-14 and three as late as 23-20, but CSP grabbed the final two points to win the set 25-20.
The Golden Bears return to action next Thursday as they take on Minnesota State on the road before returning home on Saturday to host Upper Iowa.
