MARSHALL, Minn. – The #5 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (18-4, 12-1 NSIC) dropped their first conference match of the season as they fell to #14 Southwest Minnesota State (17-4, 9-4 NSIC) in four sets (22-25, 25-20, 18-25, 11-25) on Saturday afternoon.
For the first time since Nov. 12, 2019, the Golden Bears dropped an NSIC match as their streak of 12 straight wins this season and 14 wins overall in league play came to an end in Marshall. The Mustangs pulled a little closer in the all-time series as the loss dropped Concordia to 39-27-1 in 67 matches with SMSU.
Southwest Minnesota State became the first team to clear the .300 mark hitting against CSP since Winona State hit .317 on Oct. 15, 2019, snapping a 39-match streak of opponents hitting below that mark. SMSU finished with a .314 hitting percentage, collecting 66 kills with 18 errors on 153 attempts. Concordia, on the other side, hit .207 with 47 kills and 18 errors on 140 attempts.
The Golden Bears did hold an edge in blocking at 10.0-5.0 while both teams picked up four aces and SMSU claimed a slim 64-62 advantage in digs.
Tori Hanson once again paced the squad with 17 digs, giving her 13 straight matches in double figures and seven of the last nine with 15 or more.
Ellianna Wiertsema also reached double figures with 12.
Kennedy Brady,
Jasmine Mulvihill and
Emma Schmidt all surpassed double figures in kills as Brady and Mulvihill each finished with 12 and Schmidt had 11. Brady hit a team-best .407, Mulvihill added six digs and two blocks, and Schmidt finished a dig shy of a double-double with nine.
Teagan Starkey supplied 23 assists and
Ellie Veldman added 18.
The Mustangs called on Angela Young early and often as she led all players with 26 kills while hitting .404 and chipping in 12 digs in the win. Meg Schmidt added 17 kills while Payton Hjerleid finished with a team-best 17 digs for SMSU.
The two teams jostled for the lead in the opening set with nine ties and four lead changes as neither team led by more than three in the set. Concordia built their largest lead of the set at 19-16 following a 3-0 run and remained out front by a pair at 22-20, but the Mustangs took it from there with five straight points to steal a 25-22 set win.
Jumping out to a 6-3 lead early in the second set, the Golden Bears spent much of the rest of the set clinging to a small advantage. SMSU eventually grabbed the lead at 12-11, but CSP regained the lead for good with a 3-0 run of their own. With the lead sitting at one at 20-19, Concordia closed out the set with a 5-1 run to win it 25-20 and even the match at 1-1.
The Mustangs regained control midway through the third set as they used a 4-0 run to build a 17-11 edge. The lead did not shrink below five the rest of the way as Southwest Minnesota State took a 2-1 lead with a 25-18 set win.
SMSU poured it on in the fourth as a massive 15-1 run turned a 4-4 tie into a 19-5 lead. The Golden Bears managed to chip away a bit down the stretch, but the gap proved to be too big as the Mustangs finished off the match with a 25-11 set win.
CSP will look to get back in the win column on a split weekend as they host Minnesota State on Thursday before traveling to #12 Winona State on Saturday.
