ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #4 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (7-2, 1-0 NSIC) picked up a sweep (25-15, 25-12, 25-23) of Minot State (0-6, 0-1 NSIC) on Friday night in their first match at Gangelhoff Center in 671 days.
 
The Golden Bears improved to 17-1 in conference openers under head coach Brady Starkey and 11-0 all-time against the Beavers of Minot State. Nine of CSP's 11 wins over MiSU have been sweeps.
 
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.
 
As a team, CSP put up their second best hitting percentage of the season at .393 with 47 kills and 14 errors on 84 attempts on the night while Minot State finished at .136 with 18 kills and nine errors on 66 attempts. Concordia served tough throughout the night as they tallied 11 aces compared to five for MiSU and added a 30-22 edge in digs in the win.
 
The Golden Bears grabbed three of the first four points of the match and eight of the first 12 to build an early lead, but Minot State answered with four in a row to tie it up at 8-8. A 7-0 run a few points later extended the lead out to 17-9 before the Beavers pulled it back to within five with three straight the other way. CSP then delivered another 7-1 run to balloon the lead to 11 before taking the set 25-15.
 
Concordia came out firing in the second set with six straight points and nine of the first 11 to give themselves some breathing room. The lead reached a dozen at 17-5 following a 7-1 burst as the Golden Bears put it out of reach early. The margin grew to as many as 14 at 23-9 en route to a 25-12 set win.
 
After only three ties and no lead changes through the first two sets, the third set proved to be more even with four and two, respectively. The Beavers opened with three of the first four points and remained out front at 7-5 until five in a row for the Golden Bears turned it in their favor. Minot State managed to even the score at 11-11, but an 8-1 run gave CSP the decisive edge at 19-12. Concordia sat two points away from finishing off the match at 23-16, but six consecutive points pulled the Beavers all the way back within one. Concordia stemmed the tide with two of the final three points to complete the sweep with a 25-23 win in the third.
 
The Golden Bears will look to make it two wins on the weekend as they host the University of Mary tomorrow at 2 p.m.