ST. PAUL, Minn. - The sixth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (20-4, 14-2 NSIC) hits the road for a pair of top-10 matchups as they take on fifth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (21-3, 14-2 NSIC) on Friday and eighth-ranked St. Cloud State (20-4, 10-4 NSIC) on Saturday.

MINNESOTA DULUTH SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters Friday's meeting with a record of 26-29 in the all-time series with UMD, including a record of 10-14 in Duluth. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 21 wins in the last 31 meetings. In the past 11 meetings overall, CSP has picked up seven wins. The two teams split the season series last year with each team winning on their home court while UMD grabbed the first meeting of this season.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
Back on Sept. 27, CSP dropped their NSIC home opener to Minnesota Duluth in straight sets in St. Paul.

In a back-and-forth match that featured 27 ties and nine lead changes, it was the offenses that shined as UMD hit .278 (49-17-115) and CSP hit .252 (44-16-111) for the match. Both teams had three different players finish in double figures in kills while five of the six hitters hit above .300. The Bulldogs also finished with a 48-43 advantage and a 6-4 advantage in service aces.
 
The trio of Jasmine Mulvihill, Sara Macek and Kennedy Brady provided an impressive effort as they combined for 34 kills and a .453 hitting percentage in the match. Mulvihill led the way with 14 kills and just one error on 29 swings for a .448 hitting percentage while Macek put up a massive 10 kill, zero error effort on 15 swings to hit .667 to go along with a pair of aces. Brady followed with 10 kills on 20 attempts for a .300 hitting percentage.
 
Tori Hanson was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in digs with 11 while Payton Nutter added 24 assists and Ellie Veldman contributed 16 assists.

ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears are set to take on St. Cloud State for the 29th time in the all-time series on Friday night with CSP holding a record of 27-1 in the previous 28 meetings. After the Huskies picked up a sweep in the first ever meeting back in 1975, Concordia has rattled off 27 consecutive wins in the series, including 22 sweeps. Dating back to 2008, all but three matches have ended in three sets with the set wins for SCSU coming in 2014, 2018 and earlier this season. Concordia has gone 12-1 in 13 trips to St. Cloud.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
Back on Sept. 28, Concordia rallied to win the final two sets to claim a five-set victory (25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-12) over St. Cloud State.

It was a grind-it-out match for both teams Concordia collected 86 digs and 12.0 blocks while the Huskies finished with 82 digs and 11.0 blocks. Outside of an offensive outburst in the third set in which both teams hit .379 or better, neither team registered a hitting percentage above .286 in any set. CSP finished the match at .202 (65-28-183) while SCSU was held to .160 (61-31-188).
 
Tori Hanson played a huge role in the defensive effort as she fell four digs shy of her career high with 30. Her 30-dig effort was just the second for the program since 2011. She was joined in double figures by Erin Fallert and Riley Decker as Fallert finished with 19 and Riley Decker set a career-best with 13. Fallert also tallied 16 kills and a .333 hitting percentage for her seventh double-double of the season.
 
Fallert and Jasmine Mulvihill combined for over half of the team's 65 kills as Mulvihill led the team with 17 kills to go along with five blocks. The freshman has now reached double digits in kills in 11 matches on the year, including four with 15 or more. Kennedy Brady added eight kills to go along with a team-best eight blocks in the win.

LAST TIME OUT
On Tuesday night, CSP picked up their ninth win over a ranked opponent on the season with a four-set win (25-20, 15-25, 25-23, 25-23) over #16 Winona State.

While it was the Golden Bears that came out on top in three of the four sets, it was the Warriors that held an edge in quite a few statistical categories as they out-hit CSP .230-185 and finished with 9.0-5.0 edge in blocks. Despite the efficiency being in WSU's favor, the volume was in CSP's as they edge the Warriors in kills at 56-52, digs at 67-64 and aces at 5-4 to guide the team to victory.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill provided much of that volume with a career-best 25 kills while delivering an efficient effort of her own at .435. She also chipped in five digs, an ace and a block in the win. Erin Fallert also reached double figures with 10 kills to go along with 17 digs for the double-double. It was also a historic night for Fallert as she became the 19th player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs with her final dig of the night.
 
Payton Nutter provided a double-double of her own with 51 assists and 12 digs while Tori Hanson registered a match-best 23 digs in the win.

IN THE POLLS
After spending last week at #6 in the polls, the Golden Bears remained at #6 this week after a 2-0 weekend. 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.

CONFERENCE LEADERS
As one of the top teams in the NSIC, the Golden Bears have gotten production from throughout their lineup as seven different players that rank in the top 20 in the league in at least one statistical category this season.

Tori Hanson has provided CSP with a solid presence in the back row as her 4.56 digs per set rank sixth in the NSIC and her 0.38 aces rank fifth. She's not the only Golden Bear in the top-20 in either category as Erin Fallert ranks 16th in digs per set (3.58) as well as 15th in kills per set (3.02) and Makenna Berger sits in 13th in aces per set (0.31).

Sara Macek has put together yet another efficient season as her .352 hitting percentage is good for seventh in the league while she also ranks 15th with 0.81 blocks per set. Jasmine Mulvihill's .304 hitting percentage also sits in the top-20 at 15th while her team-leading 3.97 kills per set rank seventh. Kennedy Brady has added a team-best 0.95 blocks per set as well, good for seventh. Payton Nutter rounds out the group as her 9.46 assists per set rank 10th.

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 seventh in DII-era history at CSP with 1,478 digs, sitting 64 shy of Jessica Lucia in sixth. She isn't the only Golden Bear piling up career statistics as Erin Fallert became the 19th player in program history to join the 1,000 dig club in Tuesday night's win over Winona State. Sara Macek also sits 98 kills shy of 1,000 with 902.