ST. PAUL, Minn. - The fourth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (11-2, 5-0 NSIC is set for a big road weekend against a pair of ranked opponents as they take on #16 St. Cloud State (10-3, 5-0 NSIC) on Friday at 6 p.m. and #22 Minnesota Duluth (9-4, 2-3 NSIC) on Saturday at 2 p.m.

ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears have dominated the all-time series with the Huskies as they have claimed 28 wins in 30 previous meetings. CSP had claimed 27 consecutive wins heading into the 2019 meeting in St. Cloud before the Huskies pulled off a wild comeback to grab a five-set victory. Concordia got their revenge two weeks later as the Golden Bears knocked off SCSU in the NSIC title match. In 14 meetings in St. Cloud, CSP has gone 12-2 in those previous contests.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
In the 2019 NSIC Championship match on Nov. 24, 2019, third-seeded #8 CSP claimed their sixth NSIC Tournament Championship with a sweep (25-17, 25-23, 25-21) of fourth-seeded #7 St. Cloud State at Sanford Pentagon.

Concordia's three NSIC All-Tournament Team selections were the top producers on the day as Jasmine Mulvihill, Tori Hanson and Erin Fallert played a big role in the victory.
 
Mulvihill led the Golden Bears in kills in each of the three matches as she tallied 14 kills, seven digs, three blocks and a pair of aces in the win. She finished the tournament with an impressive 4.31 kills per set (56 total kills) to go along with 1.92 digs, 0.77 aces and 0.62 blocks per set.
 
Hanson paced all players with 17 digs in the match as she finished the weekend with a team-best 63 digs for an average of 4.85 per set.
 
Fallert registered her second double-double in three matches as she collected 10 kills and 14 digs to give her an average of 2.62 kills per set and 2.92 digs per set in the tournament.
 
MINNESOTA DULUTH SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters Saturday's meeting with a record of 28-30 in the all-time series with UMD, including a record of 10-15 in Duluth. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 23 wins in the last 32 meetings. The two teams met four times in the 2019 season with the Bulldogs winning both of the regular season meetings and the Golden Bears winning both of the postseason meetings. CSP knocked off the Bulldogs in the 2019 NSIC Tournament semifinal before pulling out a sweep in the NCAA Central Region semifinal.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
In the last meeting back on Dec. 6, 2019, third-ranked and third-seeded Concordia-St. Paul advanced to the NCAA Central Region Championship with a sweep of sixth-ranked and second-seeded Minnesota Duluth in the semifinal.

It was mistake-free volleyball that gave Concordia the edge on the night as they committed just eight hitting errors while collecting 43 kills to tally an efficient .315 hitting percentage on the night. Minnesota Duluth actually finished with three more kills at 46, but were unable to match the efficiency as they were forced into 24 errors to finish at .177. Concordia's block played a role in that as they collected 8.0 blocks compared to 2.0 for UMD. CSP also made life tough on the Bulldogs with their serving as they consistently put UMD in difficult positions while also grabbed a 3-0 edge in service aces.
 
Erin Fallert was effective all the way around for the Golden Bears as she led all players with 14 kills, 10 digs, two blocks and an ace while hitting .433. She was joined by Jasmine Mulvihill in double figures in kills as Mulvihill finished a dig shy of a double-double with 11 kills and nine digs.
 
Tori Hanson put in another solid effort with a match-best 14 digs to go along with four assists.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears continued their unbeaten start to conference play as they swept MSU Moorhead on Friday before knocking off Northern State in four on Saturday.

On Friday, 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.

On Saturday, 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.
 
IN THE POLLS
After spending last week at #6 in the polls, the Golden Bears moved up to #4 following a 3-0 weekend. Concordia has been a mainstay near the top of the poll for over a decade 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
Heading into the conference season, the Golden Bears have gotten production from throughout their lineup as seven different players that rank in the top-20 in the league in at least one statistical category this season.

Jasmine Mulvihill and Sophia Andersen both rank inside the top-20 in kills per set as Mulvihill sits in fifth with 3.90 kills per set while Andersen sits in 17th at 2.79. CSP also has three players ranked near the top in hitting percentage as Katie Mattson leads the way in fifth at .360 while Kennedy Brady's mark of .355 ranks sixth and Mulvihill ranks 15th at .292.

Mattson and Brady also rank near the top in blocks per set as Mattson holds the seventh spot at 1.13 and Brady holds the eighth spot at 1.03. Ellie Veldman registers in at fourth in the conference and ninth in the nation in assists per set at 10.70 while Tori Hanson ranks 10th in digs per set at 3.81. Emma Schmidt (fourth with 0.43), Hanson (14th with 0.33) and Veldman (20th with 0.30) also rank in the top-20 in service aces per set. 

CLIMBING THE RANKS
After reaching the 1,000 career dig mark late in her sophomore season, junior libero Tori Hanson has moved her way up in the career record book at Concordia. Hanson currently ranks third in DII-era history at CSP with 1,870 digs, sitting 344 shy of Megan Graham in second, and fifth in service aces with 140, one shy of Maggie McNamara and Joy Wubben in a tie for third.