ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 10th-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-6, 13-3 NSIC) returns home for the final time in the 2021 season as they host Northern State (10-6, 15-9 NSIC) on Friday and MSU Moorhead (5-19, 5-11 NSIC) on Saturday.

WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC volleyball matches will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
 
BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
New this year to Golden Bears is online ticketing. Buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.

PARENT'S NIGHT & SENIOR NIGHT
Prior to the start of Friday night's match against Northern State, Concordia-St. Paul volleyball parents will be honored with a brief on-court ceremony. On Saturday, CSP seniors Tori Hanson and Ellie Veldman will be honored in a pre-match ceremony on Senior Night.

POSTSEASON CHASE
On Wednesday afternoon, the first NCAA Regional Rankings were released and CSP debuted in the fifth spot. The top eight teams in the region will advance to the NCAA region tournament on December 2-4 or 3-5. Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the MIAA, GAC and NSIC postseason tournaments, with the remaining five spots awarded on an at-large basis. The NCAA Volleyball selection show will be streamed online on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 6:30 p.m. (CT) on NCAA.com.

With two weekends left in the NSIC regular season, the Golden Bears sit in a tie for second place in the league standings with Winona State. The two schools sit two games behind St. Cloud State in first place and two games ahead of Wayne State in fourth. The top eight teams will play in the single elimination NSIC Volleyball Tournament on November 18-20. All three rounds of the tournament will take place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

NORTHERN STATE SERIES HISTORY
Friday's meeting between the Golden Bears and the Wolves marks the 45th time the two schools have met as CSP holds a record of 35-9 in the previous 44 meetings. The Golden Bears have dominated the series since 2003 as Concordia has won 33 of the past 35 meetings. Both of those wins for NSU during that stretch have come since 2015 with a four-setter back on Oct. 16, 2015 and a five-setter on Sept. 28, 2018. Only three of the last 10 meetings have been decided in three sets with five going to five sets. In 25 home contests in the series, Concordia has gone 22-3.

LAST MEETING VS NSU
Back on Sept. 25, the Golden Bears took down Northern State in four sets (19-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-21) on the road.

Serving was the story of the matched as Concordia tallied a staggering 14 service aces while NSU finished with just two in the match. CSP fell just two aces shy of the single-match program record of 16 set on Sept. 6, 2002, putting up their best total since collecting 15 on Oct. 2, 2007.
 
The trio of Ellianna Wiertsema, Jasmine Mulvihill and Emma Schmidt combined for 12 of the team's 14 aces. Wiertsema led the way with a career-best five aces while Mulvhill added four and Schmidt added three in the win. Mulvihill filled the stat sheet as she picked up her third double-double of the year with 13 kills and 13 digs while Wiertsema tacked on six digs.
 
Ellie Veldman added a double-double of her own with 42 assists, 11 digs and four blocks while Tori Hanson matched Mulvihill for the team high with 13 digs.
 
MSU MOORHEAD SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Saturday's meeting with the Dragons with a record of 32-8 in 40 previous meetings as CSP has controlled the series in recent history. Since 2001, Concordia has picked up 32 wins in the last 33, including 17 in a row since 2008. During that winning streak, the Golden Bears have only dropped three sets as they have collected sweeps in 14 of those contests. In 19 all-time meetings in St. Paul, Concordia has gone 16-3.

LAST MEETING VS MSUM
Back on Sept. 24, CSP picked up their fourth straight sweep to start the conference season as they took all three sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-18) at MSU Moorhead.

CSP controlled nearly every aspect of play as they held a 47-28 advantage in kills, a 60-38 advantage in digs and a 7-5 advantage in blocks while edging the Dragons in hitting percentage at .265 to .089.
 
Tori Hanson and Makenna Berger each reached double digits in digs as Hanson led all players with 14 digs and Berger chipped in 11. Berger added five kills, two aces and two blocks in the win. Ellie Veldman fell a dig shy of a double-double with 35 assists, nine digs and three blocks.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill made it four straight matches with at least 14 kills as she continued her dominant start to the NSIC season. Kora Kritzberger added an extremely efficient nine kills on 12 swings with no errors for a .750 hitting percentage as she also added three digs and two blocks. Kennedy Brady and Sophia Anderson added seven kills apiece.

LAST TIME OUT
On Tuesday night, the Golden Bears were unable to keep pace on the road as they were swept (24-26, 22-25, 17-25) by Upper Iowa.

While both teams finished with an identical 38 kills and UIU held a slim .200-.189 advantage in the match, serving made the difference on the night. Upper Iowa tallied 11 aces on the night while the Golden Bears were held without any in the loss. Despite the loss, CSP also led the way in digs at 43-42 and blocks at 7.0-3.0 on the night.
 
Payton Stier led the team in digs for the third match in a row, finishing with 12, while Sophia Andersen and Emma Schmidt fell one shy of double figures with nine apiece. Andersen also matched a team high with eight kills while Schmidt had five. Kennedy Brady added eight kills and three blocks while Kora Kritzberger hit .500 with six kills and three blocks. Teagan Starkey led the team with 18 assists while Ellie Veldman followed close behind with 14.
 
IN THE POLLS
The Golden Bears dropped to #10 in the poll after splitting with Minnesota State and #10 Winona State last weekend. Concordia has been a mainstay near the top of the poll for nearly two decades as they haven't ranked outside the top-10 since 2003. The Golden Bears have spent an incredible 84 weeks at #1 since they debuted there in the 2004 preseason poll. Since the 2007 season, CSP has ranked #1 at least once in all but one season.

CONFERENCE LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears have gotten production throughout their lineup as six different players that rank in the top-20 in the league in at least one statistical category this season.

Jasmine Mulvihill, Sophia Andersen and Emma Schmidt all rank inside the top-20 in kills per set as Mulvihill sits in ninth with 3.60 kills per set while Andersen sits in 14th with 2.94 and Schmidt sits in 20th with 2.60. Kennedy Brady also ranks near the top in hitting percentage as she ranks seventh at .333 and she also ranks seventh in blocks per set at 1.07.

Tori Hanson ranks fourth in digs per set at 4.68 and 20th in service aces per set at 0.31. Schmidt also ranks 13th in aces per set at 0.33 while Ellie Veldman ranks 10th in assists per set at 8.55.

CLIMBING THE RANKS
After reaching the 1,000 career dig mark late in her sophomore season, senior libero Tori Hanson reached 2,000 in her career a few weeks ago. Hanson currently ranks third in DII-era history at CSP with 2,070 digs, sitting 144 shy of Megan Graham in second, and third in service aces with 150, 15 shy of Jessica Lucia in second.

Sophomore Jasmine Mulvihill is closing in on becoming the 22nd member of the 1,000 kill club at Concordia in just her second season of play. Mulvihill sits 154 kills shy of the mark while her 3.99 career kills per set rank first at CSP.