ABERDEEN, S.D. – The sixth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (11-2, 5-0 NSIC) continued their unbeaten run to begin conference play as they knocked off Northern State (9-4, 4-1 NSIC) in four sets (19-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-21) on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Golden Bears kicked off the NSIC season with five straight wins for the fourth time in the past five seasons while they improved to 35-9 in 44 previous meeting with the Wolves.
 
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.
 
Makenna Berger finished with nine kills, three digs and three blocks while Kennedy Brady also chipped in nine kills to go along with four digs and three blocks. Kora Kritzberger and Sophia Andersen each contributed eight kills as Kritzberger also added six blocks and five digs.
 
Natalia Szybinska and Sally Gaul each collected 10 kills for the Wolves while Keri Walker led all players with 14 digs in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves playing from behind for most of the opening set as they saw a 9-8 lead turn into a 12-9 deficit following a 4-0 run for the Wolves. CSP found themselves only down a pair at 18-16 before another 4-0 run pushed it to six at 22-16. NSU took the set by that same margin as they won the first set 25-19.
 
Concordia turned the tide in the second set as they scored the first three points and added another 7-0 run a few points later to build a 12-4 advantage. The CSP lead never shrunk below six the rest of the way as a 4-0 run later in the set extended the lead to double figures at 20-10. The Golden Bears continued to add on from there as they evened the match with a 25-13 set win.
 
The Golden Bears held the Wolves at bay for much of the third set as their lead bounced from three to five points pretty much throughout. Northern State managed to pull within one at 14-13, but that would be all the closer they would get as CSP remained out front the rest of the way en route to a 25-20 win in the third.
 
CSP came out firing with the first six points in the fourth set before slowly building their advantage through the middle portions of the set. A big 7-0 run ballooned the lead all the way out to 14 at 23-9, but the Wolves managed to stay alive with 12 of the next 13 points, including seven in a row on match point, to close the gap to three at 24-21. Sophia Andersen finished it off from there as she gave the Golden Bears a 25-21 win in the fourth with her eighth kill of the night.
 
Concordia remains on the road next weekend as they travel to #20 St. Cloud State on Friday and #19 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.