SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The third-seeded #8 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-7) advances to the NSIC Tournament Championship as they defeated #8 Minnesota Duluth (25-6) in five sets (25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 25-17, 15-11) the NSIC Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Sanford Pentagon.
Concordia will face fourth-seeded #7 St. Cloud State in the title match tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Sanford Pentagon.
The Golden Bears improved to 25-6 all-time in the conference tourney as they reach to the championship for the ninth time in 12 trips. CSP has previously claimed the crown and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament five times (2004, 2005, 2006, 2015 and 2016). Concordia also improved to 27-30 in the all-time series with the Bulldogs.
CSP came through when it mattered as they hit .241 or better in all three sets they won, including marks of .324 in the first set and .312 in the fifth, while holding UMD to .000 or below in each of the last two sets. Overall, the Golden Bears finished at .207 hitting with 54 kills while the Bulldogs hit .164 with 60 kills. Concordia did manage a 9.0-6.0 edge in blocks, including a 6.0-0.0 edge in a dominant fourth set.
NSIC Freshman of the Year
Jasmine Mulvihill was the focal point of the CSP attack as she led all players with 23 kills while committing just three errors on 47 attempts to finish at .383 for the night. She also chipped in 10 digs, four aces and three blocks in big all-around performance.
Erin Fallert joined Mulvihill in double figures in kills with 10 while she fell two digs shy of a double-double.
Sydney Book chipped in nine kills while
Sara Macek had seven and
Kennedy Brady had five. Macek also chipped in five blocks while Brady had three.
Tori Hanson paced the back row with a match-best 20 digs to go along with a pair of aces while
Payton Nutter added 10 digs as well as 44 assists in the win.
Kate Berg added a 20-10 performance for the Bulldogs as she finished with 20 kills and 10 digs while Emily Balts had 53 assists, 13 digs and four aces in the loss.
The Bulldogs delivered the first blow as they opened the match with the first three points before the two teams spent much of the rest of the set going back and forth trading points. CSP evened the score at 5-5 and again at 6-6, but UMD jumped back out front from there with their lead back to three at 11-8. Concordia responded with a 4-0 run to take their first lead of the match as that set up a stretch of nine ties and five lead changes in an 18 point span. The big turning point came late as the Golden Bears strung together a timely 4-0 run to turn a 19-18 deficit into a 22-19 lead. The two teams traded points the rest of the way as CSP took the first set by the same margin at 25-22.
Concordia held an early 3-2 lead in the second set, but Minnesota Duluth quickly turned the tide with four in a row to take the lead for good. UMD slowly added to their advantage throughout as the lead grew from four at 10-6 to eight at 15-7 following a 5-1 run. The lead would not shrink below six down the stretch as the Bulldogs went on to win the set 25-17.
The first run of the third set went to the Bulldogs as UMD turned a 4-4 tie into a 9-5 lead to force an early CSP timeout. The Golden Bears responded with three straight points coming out of that timeout before using an even bigger 5-0 run a few points later to take a 15-12 lead. Momentum swung right back in the other direction as Minnesota Duluth regained the edge with six points in a row and 11 of 13 to go back in front 23-17. The Bulldogs would not relinquish that lead as they took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 25-20 set win in the third.
The Golden Bears found themselves in an early 3-1 hole in the fourth, but they completely flipped the script with seven of the next eight points as a part of a massive 15-4 burst to run out to a 16-7 lead. UMD trimmed it back to six with a 3-0 run, but that would be all the closer they would get as a 3-0 run the other way a few points later put it out of reach. Concordia led by as many as nine as they cruised to a 25-17 win in the set to bring the match to a decisive fifth set.
Concordia picked up where they left off in the fifth as an early 3-0 run put the Golden Bears ahead 5-3. CSP added to their advantage a few points later as they rattled off a huge 6-2 run to make it 12-7. The Bulldogs closed the gap to two with three in a row, but that was all the closer they would get as the Golden Bears grabbed three of the final four to win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
