WINONA, Minn. – The #7 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-5, 13-2 NSIC) fell to #10 Winona State (21-3, 12-3 NSIC) in four sets (16-25, 25-17, 15-25, 21-25) on the road on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Warriors completed the regular season sweep of CSP as they have now won three of the last five in the series to drop the Golden Bears to 34-11 in the all-time series.
 
Winona State finished with a 58-49 advantage in kills while also claiming a slight advantage in hitting percentage at .243-.217. Serving played a role in the match as WSU finished with five aces and just two service errors while Concordia tallying three aces and seven service errors. The Warriors also came out on top with a 70-64 edge in digs as well as a 10.0-9.0 edge in blocks in the win.
 
Freshman Payton Stier set a new career high in digs for the second straight match as she led all Golden Bears with 19 on the day to go along with a pair of aces. Emma Schmidt and Sophia Andersen each joined her in double figures with 11 digs apiece as Schmidt added 11 kills for her sixth double-double of the season while Andersen fell a kill short with nine.
 
Katie Mattson matched Schmidt for the team lead with 11 kills while Kennedy Brady added 11. Kora Kritzberger hit .429 with seven kills while also leading all players with a career-best seven blocks. Teagan Starkey contributed 25 assists while Veldman had 19.
 
Sidney Paulson finished with a match-best 16 kills while Becca Pagel had a match-best 23 digs in the win for the Warriors.
 
Winona State came out firing in the opening set as they jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead and they maintained that lead throughout. The Golden Bears remained within that margin of five at 17-12, but seven of the next nine and eight of the next 12 went in favor of WSU as they took the first set 25-16.
 
It was more of the same early in the second as WSU claimed four of the first five points, but Concordia rallied to take their first lead of the day at 9-8. From there, the Golden Bears slowly added to their advantage before closing out the set on a 4-0 run to win it 25-17.
 
A 4-0 run midway through the third set turned a 7-6 deficit into a 10-7 lead for Concordia, but a huge 13-2 run the other way gave the Warriors a 20-12 advantage as they took the lead for good. That lead ballooned to double digits at 25-15 as WSU took the final four points of the set.
 
The two teams jockeyed for the lead in the fourth as there were eight ties and three lead changes throughout. The score remained tied as late as 15-15 before a 3-0 run gave Winona State the decisive edge. CSP kept the deficit within a pair at 22-20, but the Warriors claimed three of the final four points to win the set 25-21 and the match 3-1.
 
Concordia will look to get back in the win column on Tuesday night as they travel to Upper Iowa. First serve is set for 6 p.m.