ST. PAUL, Minn. – The seventh-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-4, 13-1 NSIC) cruised to a sweep (25-14, 25-12, 25-12) of Minnesota State on Thursday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
Concordia rattled off their 14^th consecutive victory over the Mavericks as they improved to 16-0 on their home court and 32-4 overall in the all-time series.
 
A dominant serving performance coupled with some solid defense led to a win for the Golden Bears as the team tallied 12 aces while holding MSU to -.020 hitting for the night as they limited the Mavericks to 19 kills and 21 hitting errors on 99 attempts. The 12 aces matched their season-best in a three set match while they held their opponent below .000 hitting for the second time this year.
 
Concordia collected 41 kills on 100 swings to finish with a .270 hitting percentage while they also claimed a 55-38 edge in digs and a 5.0-3.0 edge in blocks.
 
Sophia Andersen and Riley Decker combined for nine of the team's 11 aces as both set career highs with Andersen finishing with five and Decker finishing with four. Andersen also contributed a career-best 16 digs as she fell a kill shy of a double-double. Decker added six digs. Payton Stier added a career night of her own as she led all players with 18 digs to go along with two aces.
 
Offensively, Katie Mattson was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in kills with 11 as she hit .474 and chipped in four blocks. Kennedy Brady added four blocks of her own as well as nine kills in the win. Teagan Starkey and Ellie Veldman split setting duties with Starkey tallying 18 assists and Veldman tallying 16.
 
Mara Quam paced MSU with 16 digs in the loss.
 
After seeing the Mavericks score four of the first six points, Concordia rattled off seven points in a row to build a 9-4 advantage. Minnesota State clawed back to tie it up at 11-11, but it was all Golden Bears from there as CSP closed on a 14-3 run, capped by 10 of the final 11 points, to win the set 25-14.
 
MSU jumped ahead early again in the second with a 5-3 run to start it off, but eight of the next nine went in favor of CSP shifted the advantage to the Golden Bears. With the Mavericks still within five at 17-12, Concordia closed out strong with an 8-0 run to win the set 25-12.
 
The run carried over into the third set as CSP opened on a 6-0 run to take the lead for good. MSU stemmed the tide a bit from there as they had it within five at 15-10, but another significant run, this time a 10-2 run, gave the Golden Bears a sweep with a 25-12 win.
 
The Golden Bears hit the road for the next two matches as they travel to #10 Winona State on Saturday and Upper Iowa on Tuesday.