HOUGHTON, Mich. – The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (2-0) picked up a pair of wins on the season's opening day as they cruised to a sweep (25-16, 25-13, 25-14) of Lake Superior State (0-1) and won in four sets (25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 25-15) against Northern Michigan (1-2) on Friday at the Keweenaw Volleyball Classic on the campus on Michigan Tech.
 
CSP improved to 15-3 in season openers under head coach Brady Starkey as the Golden Bears made their return to the court for their first competitive match since Dec. 7, 2019.
 
Concordia-St. Paul 3, Lake Superior State 0
The Golden Bears came out firing to open the season as they hit an efficient .395 as a team while limiting their opponent to an even .000 in the match. CSP controlled nearly every aspect of play as they held advantages of 43-22 in kills, 6.0-1.0 in blocks, 5-2 in aces and 31-24 in digs over the three sets.
 
Concordia utilized a balanced attack as three different hitters registered at least nine kills and five had at least six. Jasmine Mulvihill paced the squad with 10 kills to go along with four digs, a block and an ace. Kennedy Brady and Sophia Andersen gave CSP a highly efficient attacking duo as both picked up nine kills with Brady committing no errors and hitting a career-best .750 and Andersen committing just one error and hitting .571 in her collegiate debut. Katie Mattson and Emma Schmidt each chipped in six kills and three blocks while Schmidt added five digs.
 
Ellie Veldman orchestrated the strong offensive effort with 38 assists while Tori Hanson led the way in the back row with 13 digs.
 
Camdyn Odykirk paced the Lakers with seven kills and a .357 hitting percentage while Emily Hagelthorn added seven digs.
 
The Golden Bears used an early 3-0 run to grab their first lead of the season at 3-1 in the opening set before tacking on an even bigger 8-1 run several points later to turn a 5-5 tie into a 13-6 lead. LSSU trimmed it back to five at 14-9, but CSP put it out of reach with six straight points to build their largest lead of the set at 20-9. The lead would not shrink below eight the rest of the way as Concordia claimed the first set 25-16.
 
It was a quick start again in set two for CSP as they rattled off four points in a row to pull out to a 6-2 advantage. The two teams traded points from there as the lead sat at three at 11-8 before the Golden Bears pulled away. CSP grabbed five of the next six and 11 of the next 14 to balloon the lead to double figures at 22-11 before growing the lead to a dozen at the final margin of 25-13.
 
The third set proved to be much tighter in the early stages as neither team led by more than three through the first 24 points with five ties during that span. With the score even at 12-12, the Golden Bears completely turned the tide of the set with nine consecutive points to gain the decisive edge. Concordia closed the match on another 3-0 run to complete the sweep with a 25-13 set with in the third.
 
Concordia-St. Paul 3, Northern Michigan 1
The Golden Bears found themselves locked in a hard fought battle in the second match of the day as the first three sets were all determined by just two points before CSP closed out the win with a decisive fourth set victory.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill put up a big performance to pace the offense as she finished with match-best 21 kills to go along with nine digs and three blocks while hitting .446. She was joined in double figures with Sophia Andersen and Emma Schmidt contributing 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Schmidt added eight digs to finish third on the team.
 
Ellie Veldman collected the team's first double-double of the season with career-highs in assists (48) and digs (10) to go along with two aces. Tori Hanson chipped in seven digs and three aces.
 
The first set featured six ties of over the span of the first 12 points before Concordia started to build an advantage. Four points in a row turned a 7-6 deficit into a 10-7 lead kicked off a larger 12-4 run to grow the lead to 18-11 for CSP. That lead grew to as many as nine at 22-13, but a big 10-2 run in the other direction cut the lead to one at 24-23 to make things interesting down the stretch. Mulvihill broke the string of five straight points for the Wildcats to give the Golden Bears a 25-23 win in set one.
 
After falling behind 4-2 early in the second set, CSP grabbed seven of the next nine points to build a 9-6 lead. They were unable to create much separation from there as NMU tied it up at 10-10, 12-12, 15-15, 16-16 and 18-18 before regaining the lead at 19-18. The two teams traded the next eight points as Northern Michigan sat within two points of taking the set at 23-22, but the Golden Bears stormed their way to three straight points to win it 25-23.
 
The Golden Bears were locked in another tight battle early on in the third before an extended 13-4 run gave the Wildcats some breathing room with an eight-point edge at 19-11. The deficit remained eight at 20-12 before Concordia came storming back with seven in a row to trim it to one. The Golden Bears couldn't quite finish off the comeback bid as the two teams split the points the rest of the way to force a fourth set with a 25-23 set win for Northern Michigan.
 
Concordia came back with a vengeance in the fourth as they snatched the first four points and nine of the first 11 to build a comfortable cushion. The lead would not shrink below six the rest of the way, growing to as many as 12 following a 6-1 run to make it 22-10, as the Golden Bears closed out the victory with a 25-15 win.
 
The Golden Bears wrap up the Keweenaw Volleyball Classic tomorrow with an 11 a.m. match with Parkside and a 4 p.m. match with Michigan Tech.