ST. PAUL Minn. – The defending NSIC Regular Season Champions have been busy practicing this fall. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NSIC canceled competitions for the 2020 fall season. That has not stopped the Golden Bears from bringing fiery competitive energy to their practices. 

"The players have been fantastic." Head coach Steve Bellis said, "Their willingness to compete and work hard with great attitudes, great character and their willingness to learn and develop has been fantastic." 
 
The Golden Bears had their best season in program history last season. CSP went 17-3-3 in the regular season with a 12-1-2 conference record being crowned the NSIC Regular Season Champions and hosted the NSIC soccer tournament at Sea Foam Stadium. After a historic regular season, the Golden Bears took another monumental step by playing in their first ever NCAA Tournament. CSP won their first game in the NCAA Tournament in an exciting shootout victory over Northeastern State before being eliminated by the 2017 National Champions, University of Central Missouri. 
 
With an amazing season to build off of, the 2019 NSIC Coach of the Year talked about what he is excited about with this group, "The freshman group has a lot of character. Some kids who can score goals and two fantastic goalkeepers, you mix that with our returners who have won a championship, it's a really good mix of players." 
 
One of those returners is junior midfielder Ciara Bailey who also spoke about the excitement surrounding this team, "Practices have been really fun, there are a lot of good freshmen, so it has been really competitive." With the amount of talent on this Golden Bear squad the battle for starting positions have been on display during this fall camp. "I am really excited about the competitive nature we have. Everyone is competing because there is no starting spot that is secure and that has been nice"

Highlights for this Golden Bear squad:

• There are 18 returners
• There are 11 newcomers 
• Two new goalkeepers
• Concordia posted a .63 goals against average with 15 shutouts last season. With Jordyn Clark, Anna Haub, Hannah Pavek and Alexa Hepner graduating, the back line starting positions will be up for grabs in fall camp. 
• Two top goal scores from last year are back, Nikki Anderson (10), Katie Anderson (8).
• Jordyn Clark started in all 23 games in goal last season, Sarah Golemee made three appearances playing in 32 minutes. Making CSP's keeper situation an exciting fall camp competition to keep an eye on for the 2021 season. 

The Golden Bears will look to defend their NSIC title as they prepare for the 2021 season. For more CSP fall camp updates keep an eye on cspbears.com.