ST. PAUL, Minn. - The third-seeded #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (25-7) will face sixth-seeded #5 Washburn (27-3) in the NCAA Central Region quarterfinals on the campus of Nebraska-Kearney on Thursday at 12 p.m.

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets are available online at www.lopertickets.com. All-Tourney passes are available at the door.

MEDIA COVERAGE
Live video and live stats will be available at the links listed above.

WASHBURN SERIES HISTORY
Concordia's meeting with Washburn will be the sixth in the all-time series as the Golden Bears hold a 3-2 record in the previous five meetings. The past two meetings have come in the NCAA Tournament as CSP knocked off the Ichabods in the opening round back in 2014 before falling to WU in the region title last year.

LAST MEETING VS WU
Last season on Nov. 11, 2018, fourth-seeded #9 Concordia-St. Paul fell to third-seeded #8 Washburn (32-4) in the NCAA Central Region Championship match in five sets (22-25, 25-23, 25-15, 18-25, 11-15) on the campus of Nebraska-Kearney.

Washburn made life tough for the Golden Bear offense with 14.0 blocks on the match to hold CSP to .189 hitting on the night. The Ichabods were especially potent in the final two sets as they held Concordia to .122 in the fourth and -.038 in the fifth to complete the comeback. CSP did manage to outpace WU with a 73-57 edge in kills and a 77-72 edge in digs in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears had four named to the All-Tournament Team as seniors Elizabeth Mohr, Brooklyn Lewis and Hope Schiller as well as sophomore Tori Hanson earned the honors.
 
Mohr reached 60+ digs for the seventh time on the season as she compiled 65 assists and six digs to bring her season average to a nation-leading 13.17 assists per set. She finished her career with 3,531 assists, fifth-most in the DII-era at Concordia.
 
Lewis led all players with 20 kills in the loss as she reached 20+ kills for the sixth time on the year. She finished the year with a team-best 3.71 kills per set while her 3.67 career kills per set ranked third in program history. She also finished 20th in program history with 1,049 career kills.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Golden Bears have made it into the NCAA Tournament field in all 17 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey and have won 11 Central Region titles during that span. CSP has gone 69-7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has collected a record nine NCAA Division II National Championships in the past 12 years, including a 43-match winning streak that was snapped in the 2014 Central Region semifinals by Southwest Minnesota State.

The Golden Bears are 14-0 in regional quarterfinals, with two byes, and have won their first match all 16 years under Starkey. Concordia has reached the NCAA Region Championship (Sweet Sixteen) every year with the exception of 2014. In Concordia's has made two previous trips to Kearney, Neb. for the region tournament, winning it in 2011 before falling in the region title match to Washburn last season.

LAST TIME OUT
Back on Nov. 22-24, the Golden Bears picked up comeback wins against Winona State and Minnesota Duluth before sweeping St. Cloud State to win the NSIC Tournament at Sanford Pentagon.

The Golden Bears moved to 26-6 in NSIC Tournament play as they secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in 12 trips. The 2019 squad joined the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2015 and 2016 teams as tourney champions.

Concordia's three NSIC All-Tournament Team selections were the top producers in the championship as Jasmine Mulvihill, Tori Hanson and Erin Fallert played a big role in the victory.
 
Mulvihill led the Golden Bears in kills in each of the three matches as she tallied 14 kills, seven digs, three blocks and a pair of aces in the win. She finished the tournament with an impressive 4.31 kills per set (56 total kills) to go along with 1.92 digs, 0.77 aces and 0.62 blocks per set. Hanson paced all players with 17 digs in the match as she finished the weekend with a team-best 63 digs for an average of 4.85 per set. Fallert registered her second double-double in three matches as she collected 10 kills and 14 digs to give her an average of 2.62 kills per set and 2.92 digs per set in the tournament.
 
IN THE POLLS
Following the team's NSIC Tournament title run, the Golden Bears shot up the polls to #3 after finishing the previous week at #8. 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 4.64 digs per set rank sixth in the NSIC and her 0.36 aces rank fifth. She's not the only Golden Bear in the top-20 in either category as Erin Fallert ranks 17th in digs per set (3.48) as well as 17th in kills per set (2.84) and Makenna Berger sits in 11th in aces per set (0.32).

Jasmine Mulvihill has burst onto the scene as an impact player in her freshman season for CSP.  She leads the conference (and ranks fourth in the nation) in total kills with 519 while her 4.25 kills per set rank third. Mulvihill also ranks 17th with a .294 hitting percentage as well as 18th with 0.30 aces per set. Sara Macek has put together yet another efficient season as her .306 hitting percentage is good for 13th in the league while she also ranks 12th with 0.86 blocks per set. Kennedy Brady has added a team-best 0.94 blocks per set as well, good for eighth. Payton Nutter rounds out the group as her 9.96 assists per set rank ninth.

ALL-NSIC PICKS
For the 18th consecutive season, the Golden Bears secured at least four All-NSIC selections as Erin Fallert, Tori Hanson, Sara Macek and Jasmine Mulvihill all earned All-NSIC First Team honors. In addition, Mulvihill was also named the NSIC Freshman of the Year. Hanson and Macek each earned All-NSIC honors for the second year in a row while Fallert and Mulvihill were both first-time picks.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
After reaching the 1,000 career dig mark late in her sophomore season, junior libero Tori Hanson has moved her way up in the career record book at Concordia. Hanson currently ranks fifth in DII-era history at CSP with 1,629 digs, sitting 71 shy of Mandy Horazdovsky in fourth. 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 on Nov. 5 against Winona State. Sara Macek also sits 51 kills shy of 1,000 with 949.