ST. PAUL, Minn. – The sixth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (20-6, 14-4 NSIC) wraps up the regular season this week with a three-match homestand as they host 13^th-ranked Wayne State (22-5, 13-5 NSIC) on Tuesday in non-conference action before facing Minnesota Crookston (4-22, 2-16 NSIC) on Friday and Bemidji State (7-19, 4-14 NSIC) on Saturday to finish the NSIC slate.
 
SCHEDULE INFORMATION
The Golden Bears will close out the regular season in style with three straight matches at Gangelhoff Center as they look to head into the postseason on a high note. Following Tuesday's hiatus from league play with a 6 p.m. start against the Wildcats, Concordia will complete the NSIC schedule with Parent's Night on Friday and Senior Night on Saturday. First serve against the Golden Eagles on Friday is set for 5:30 p.m. while the action will begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday against the Beavers.
 
POSTSEASON PICTURE
CSP enters the final week in the regular season with a lot at stake as the top seven teams in the conference are separated by just four games with two to play in NSIC play. Sitting in third place through the first 18 league matches, the Golden Bears find themselves two games behind Minnesota Duluth in first and a game behind Northern State in second. Both of those squads face stiff competition in the final weekend with the Bulldogs travelling to Upper Iowa, who currently holds the eighth and final spot in the NSIC Tournament, and Winona State, who sits two games behind CSP in a tie for sixth, while the Wolves hit the road to Augustana, who is tied with WSU in sixth, and Wayne State, who is tied with St. Cloud State in fourth at 13-5.
 
Two wins would guarantee a top-three finish for Concordia while one win would secure a spot in the top-five. The Golden Bears have already punched their ticket to the conference tournament as they cannot fall any lower than seventh.
 
The NSIC Volleyball Tournament is scheduled for Nov. 22-24 at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
WAYNE STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Tuesday, the Golden Bears take on the Wildcats for the 48th time in the all-time series as CSP holds a record of 34-13 against WSC heading into the matchup. Since Wayne State won seven of the first eight meetings of the series, Concordia has rattled off 33 wins in the past 38 contests. That stretch included 19 wins in a row for CSP spanning from 2003-2009. In 26 meetings in St. Paul, CSP has gone 18-8 against the Wildcats.
 
LAST MEETING VS WSC
In the first meeting of the season, the Golden Bears held on for a five-set win (25-17, 25-12, 23-25, 19-25, 15-10) over Wayne State in Wayne.
 
Concordia's offensive output told the story of the match as they finished with hitting percentages of .324, .378 and .346 in the three sets they won while being limited to .065 and .085 in the two sets they lost. Overall, CSP finished with a massive 71 kills, matching their season high, on a .218 hitting percentage on the day. The Golden Bear defense also limited the WSC offense to less than 10 kills in each of their three set wins as they held the Wildcats to 43 kills and a .176 hitting percentage in the match. Concordia also held a massive 10-4 edge in aces as well as a 101-85 advantage in digs. CSP reached triple digits in digs as a team for the first time since tallying 104 against Ferris State on Sept. 12, 2015.
 
While it's been a long time since the Golden Bears finished with over 100 digs in a match, it's been even longer since they had a player collected 20+ kills and 20+ digs in the same match. Jasmine Mulvihill did just that as she comfortably set career highs with 23 kills and 21 digs in a massive effort. Her 20-20 performance was the first in program history since Megan Carlson collected 21 kills and 23 digs at Augustana on Oct. 25, 2011. Mulvihill also contributed four aces to the winning effort.
 
It was a similarly historic effort for Erin Fallert as she became just the second player at CSP to register 33 digs in a match in the 25-point scoring format. She joined teammate Tori Hanson, who put up 34 digs just over a year ago on Sept. 22, 2018 at SMSU, as the only two players since 2007 to register the feat. Fallert also matched her season best with 18 kills in addition to her 33 digs to add her ninth double-double of the year and third in a row.
 
MINNESOTA CROOKSTON SERIES HISTORY
Friday's contest in Crookston between CSP and Minnesota Crookston marks the 37th meeting between the two programs with Concordia holding a 33-3 edge in the previous meetings. After three straight wins for Minnesota Crookston to begin the series, Concordia has rattled off 33 wins in a row with 30 sweeps dating back to 2000. Minnesota Crookston's last win in the series came back on Oct. 29, 1999 in St. Paul. In 17 meetings all-time in St. Paul, CSP has won 16 of them.
 
LAST MEETING VS UMC
Back in the conference opener on Sept. 20th, the Golden Bears opened Northern Sun play with three-set sweep (25-11, 17, 16) at Minnesota Crookston.
 
Junior Erin Fallert had her sixth double-double of the year and third in a row with 10 kills and 10 digs while hitting a strong .474 (10-1-19) on the night. Mulvihill ended with a match-high 13 kills while hitting .429 as she hit double-figures in kills for the fifth straight match.
 
The back row was led by Tori Hanson's match-high 14 digs, adding five assists.
 
The passing helped setters Payton Nutter (20) and Ellie Veldman (14) serve the hitters to a .340 percentage. Five hitters had at least a .400 hitting percentage in the match with Sara Macek (.444), Sydney Book (.429) and Jamie Guptill (.400) joining Mulvihill and Fallert.
 
BEMIDJI STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Friday, the Golden Bears meet the Beavers for the 44th time in program history as Concordia enters with a record of 34-8-1 against BSU. Concordia has held a decisive edge in recent history in the series with 32 consecutive wins dating back to the 2002 season. During that span, all but three of Concordia's wins have been sweeps. In 21 meetings in St. Paul, CSP is 18-3.
 
LAST MEETING VS BSU
Back on Sept. 21st, CSP survived a scare at Bemidji State as they erased a 2-1 deficit to win in five sets (21-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 15-10).
 
Concordia's offense helped lead the way in the win as they hit .314 or better in all three sets they won in the match, including an incredible .778 (7-0-9) in the fifth set. CSP finished the match at .320 with 70 kills on 147 swings while the Beavers grabbed 54 kills on 128 attempts for a mark of .258. The Golden Bears also held a 5-2 advantage in aces as well as an 8-7 advantage in blocks while Bemidji State edged Concordia in digs with a margin of 47-44.
 
It was another career day for freshman Jasmine Mulvihill as she finished with 18 kills while hitting .361. Concordia's middles also played an important role in the offensive outburst as Kennedy Brady put up an incredible .667 hitting percentage with 14 kills on 18 swings while Sara Macek tallied 12 kills to go along with a .381 hitting percentage.
 
Payton Nutter added her third double-double of the season with 37 assists while Ellie Veldeman added 23 assists and a pair of digs. Tori Hanson matched Nutter's dig total with 10 to give her double-digit totals in all but one match on the year.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last week, the Golden Bears opened on a high note with a four-set win at home over Winona State before dropping matches to Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State over the weekend.
 
Despite the 1-2 record, Concordia led their opponents in nearly every statistical category on the week as they held a 180-161 advantage in kills, a 213-199 advantage in digs, a 28.0-23.0 advantage in blocks, a 17-15 advantage in aces and a .213-.199 advantage in hitting percentage over the three matches.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill continued her dominant stretch of play as she set a career high with 25 kills on Tuesday before surpassing that mark with 20 on Saturday. In total, the freshman finished with a staggering 72 kills for an average of 5.54 per set while hitting .329. She also chipped in 30 digs (2.31 per set) and 10 blocks (0.77 per set) on the week.
 
Tori Hanson paced the squad in the back row with 68 digs (5.23 per set) while Payton Nutter added 155 assists (11.92 per set), 32 digs (2.46 per set) and eight blocks (0.62 per set).
 
IN THE POLLS
After spending last week at #6 in the polls, the Golden Bears remained at #6 this week after a 1-2 week against three ranked opponents. 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. 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.