ST. PAUL, Minn. – The third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-2, 12-1 NSIC) erased deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to claim a five-set victory (23-25, 25-21, 16-25, 25-22, 15-4) over #5 Minnesota Duluth (19-2, 11-2 NSIC) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center as they extended their winning streak to 12.
 
Trailing 14-11 with their backs against the wall in the fourth set, the Golden Bears caught fire to score 29 of the final 41 points of the match to complete the comeback win. CSP evened the all-time series at 30-30 and 15-15 on their home court with the victory as they won their 25^th in the last 34 meetings.
 
After hitting below .300 in each of the first three sets, Concordia surged to a .371 hitting percentage in the fourth and a .417 mark in the fifth to secure the win. CSP also collected eight of their 12 aces in the match in the final two sets, including four from Jasmine Mulvihill and five from the team in the fifth. The result was a 60-57 edge in kills, a .281-.225 edge in hitting and a 12-7 edge in aces in the win.
 
Mulvihill filled the box score as she collected a match-best 19 kills and six aces while she added 10 digs and three blocks for her seventh double-double of the season. Her six aces were a career-best while matching a program record in the 25-point scoring format and registering in at fourth-best overall at CSP.
 
Emma Schmidt just missed a double-double of her own with 16 kills, eight digs, three aces and a pair of assists. Teagan Starkey cleared 50 assists for the fifth time of the season as she finished with 51 assists, nine digs and four blocks in the win.
 
Kennedy Brady finished with nine kills and four blocks while Sophia Andersen had eight kills and three digs on the night. Ellie Sieling tallied a team-best 11 digs to go along with two assists.
 
Cianna Selbitschka paced the Bulldogs with 16 kills as she added 13 digs in the loss. Madison Gordon finished with 49 assists and Kaylyn Madison had 14 digs.
 
It was a back-and-forth match throughout with 22 ties and 10 lead changes over the five matches.
 
In the first, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-3 lead before clinging to a slim margin much of the rest of the way. A 3-0 run midway through the set extended the lead to 15-10 as the lead sat between three and five until a late 4-0 burst for the Golden Bears trimmed it all the way down to one at 23-22. The two teams traded points from there as UMD closed it out 25-23.
 
Set two featured nine ties and four lead changes as both teams jostled for the lead throughout. Neither team led by more than two points until a late 3-0 run turned a 22-21 lead into a 25-21 set win for Concordia to even the match at 25-21.
 
After Concordia used a 5-0 burst to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 7-5 lead in the third set, Minnesota Duluth took control. They scored nine of the next 10 before cruising to a 25-16 set win to push the Golden Bears to the brink.
 
The Bulldogs looked poised to close things out in the fourth as they built their 14-11 advantage, but the Golden Bears came to life from there. CSP took four in a row and seven of eight to jump out to an 18-15 lead as they took the lead for good. UMD managed to trim it back to two at 23-21 and 24-22, but an Emma Schmidt kill closed out the 25-22 win and forced a deciding fifth set.
 
It was all Concordia in the fifth as Mulvihill's serving run turned a 3-3 tie into a 13-3 lead with a 10-0. UMD could not recover as a Schmidt ace secured the five-set win with a 15-4 victory in the deciding set.
 
Concordia will look to keep up their winning ways next weekend as they host Upper Iowa on Thursday before traveling to Winona State on Saturday.