ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 14th-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (20-7, 14-4 NSIC) closes out the regular season this weekend as they travel to UMary (6-21, 3-15 NSIC) on Friday and Minot State (1-23, 1-17 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.

POSTSEASON CHASE
Last Wednesday, 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 matches left in the NSIC regular season, the Golden Bears sit in third place in the league standings, a game behind Winona State in second place and a game ahead of Upper Iowa, Augustana and Northern State in a tie for 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.

UMARY 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 UMARY
Back on Sept. 18, the Golden Bears took down the University of Mary in three sets (25-14, 25-15, 25-17) at Gangelhoff Center.

It was another strong all-around performance as Concordia controlled nearly every aspect of play in the victory. CSP held a 48-19 edge in kills, a 9.0-3.0 edge in blocks and a 43-32 edge in digs while out-hitting the Marauders .351-.024 on the day. The match marked the fifth time the team surpassed the .300 mark hitting and third time they held their opponents below .100 on the season.
 
Concordia had four hitters collect at least eight kills on the day, led by 14 from Jasmine Mulvihill, while Katie Mattson and Sophia Andersen had nine kills apiece in addition to eight for Makenna Berger. Mulvihill hit .440 while tallying five digs, three aces and a pair of blocks while Mattson paced the squad with four blocks and an efficient .615 hitting percentage. Berger chipped in nine digs as well.
 
Tori Hanson led the Golden Bears with 11 digs while Ellie Veldman picked up 25 assists and seven digs. Teagan Starkey added 14 assists and three digs in her one set of action.
 
MINOT STATE 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 MiSU
Back on Sept. 17, CSP picked up a sweep (25-15, 25-12, 25-23) of Minot State in their first match at Gangelhoff Center in 671 days.

Sophomore Jasmine Mulvihill was nearly unstoppable as she led all players with 15 kills and no errors on just 18 swings. Her .833 attack percentage tied for second-best all-time at Concordia (minimum 12 attempts), trailing only Maria Steinhagen's mark of .883 (15-0-17) set back on Oct. 7, 2006 against Bemidji State.
 
Mulvihill was one of three Golden Bear hitters to surpass .500 hitting as Kennedy Brady picked up seven kills on eight swings for a mark of .875 while Katie Mattson finished at .533 with nine kills and one error on 15 attempts. Kora Kritzberger added an impressive performance of her own in the third set as she picked up five kills on seven attempts.
 
Ellianna Wiertsema and Makenna Berger each grabbed a match-best eight digs as Tori Hanson followed close behind with seven. Berger chipped in four aces and four kills while Wiertsema tacked on two aces of her own. Ellie Veldman finished with 26 assists, two aces and two blocks over two sets while Teagan Starkey collected 17 assists in the third set.

LAST TIME OUT
On Saturday night, Concordia closed out their home slate with a sweep (25-18, 25-23, 25-19) of MSU Moorhead on Senior Night at Gangelhoff Center.

Concordia tallied an impressive 11 aces on the night while also claiming a 47-34 edge in kills and a 60-47 edge in digs in the victory. CSP also finished with a .241-.204 advantage in hitting percentage as well to aid the effort.
 
Concordia's 47 kills were spread evenly as four different players registered in double figures on the night. Emma Schmidt fill the stat sheet with 11 kills and a .556 hitting percentage while adding 11 digs and four aces to collect her seventh double-double on the year. Jasmine Mulvihilll added a double-double of her own, also her seventh, with a team-best 12 kills as well as 10 digs and a pair of aces in the win.
 
Kennedy Brady chipped in 11 kills, three aces, two blocks and two digs while Sophia Andersen finished with 10 kills and three digs. Teagan Starkey and Ellie Veldman split setting duties with 23 assists for Starkey and 19 for Veldman. CSP also had four in double figures in digs as Ellianna Wiertsema and Payton Stier joined Schmidt and Mulvihill. Wiertsema led all players with 17 digs while Stier chipped in 11.
 
IN THE POLLS
For the first time since 2003, Concordia dropped out of the top-10 in the AVCA poll as they fell to #14 after going 1-2 last week. In total, 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 eighth with 3.63 kills per set while Andersen sits in 14th with 2.93 and Schmidt sits in 20th with 2.64. Kennedy Brady also ranks near the top in hitting percentage as she ranks eighth at .332 and she also ranks seventh in blocks per set at 1.05.

Tori Hanson ranks fourth in digs per set at 4.68 and 20th in service aces per set at 0.31. Schmidt also ranks ninth in aces per set at 0.36 and Mulvihill ranks 19th with 0.31 aces per set while Ellie Veldman ranks ninth in assists per set at 8.33.

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 130 kills shy of the mark while her 3.99 career kills per set rank first at CSP.