ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-2, 12-1 NSIC) is set for a split weekend as they host Upper Iowa (12-8, 6-7 NSIC) on Thursday before traveling to Winona State (11-9, 7-6 NSIC) on Saturday.

UPPER IOWA SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Peacocks are set to meet for the 20th time in the all-time series on Thursday as CSP enters the contest with a mark of 18-1 in the previous meetings. Concordia had dropped just two of the 56 sets overall before UIU took all three sets last season. CSP is a perfect 8-0 on their home court.

LAST MEETING VS UIU
Back on Nov. 2, 2021, CSP was unable to keep pace on the road as they were swept (24-26, 22-25, 17-25) by Upper Iowa.

While both teams finished with an identical 38 kills and UIU held a slim .200-.189 advantage in the match, serving made the difference on the night. Upper Iowa tallied 11 aces on the night while the Golden Bears were held without any in the loss. Despite the loss, CSP also led the way in digs at 43-42 and blocks at 7.0-3.0 on the night.
 
Payton Stier led the team in digs for the third match in a row, finishing with 12, while Sophia Andersen and Emma Schmidt fell one shy of double figures with nine apiece. Andersen also matched a team high with eight kills while Schmidt had five. Kennedy Brady added eight kills and three blocks while Kora Kritzberger hit .500 with six kills and three blocks. Teagan Starkey led the team with 18 assists while Ellie Veldman followed close behind with 14.

WINONA STATE SERIES HISTORY
Concordia's meeting with Winona State on Saturday marks the 46th meeting between the two schools all-time. The Golden Bears hold a record of 34-11 against the Warriors. After WSU claimed wins in seven of the first nine contests against CSP, the Golden Bears have rattled off 32 wins in the past 36 meetings. Three of those four wins for the Warriors have come since 2019 as WSU has gone 3-2 in the last five meetings. Concordia holds a 12-6 record in 18 trips to Winona.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on Oct. 30, 2021, the Golden Bears fell to Winona State in four sets (16-25, 25-17, 15-25, 21-25) on the road.

Winona State finished with a 58-49 advantage in kills while also claiming a slight advantage in hitting percentage at .243-.217. Serving played a role in the match as WSU finished with five aces and just two service errors while Concordia tallying three aces and seven service errors. The Warriors also came out on top with a 70-64 edge in digs as well as a 10.0-9.0 edge in blocks in the win.
 
Freshman Payton Stier set a new career high in digs for the second straight match as she led all Golden Bears with 19 on the day to go along with a pair of aces. Emma Schmidt and Sophia Andersen each joined her in double figures with 11 digs apiece as Schmidt added 11 kills for her sixth double-double of the season while Andersen fell a kill short with nine.
 
Katie Mattson matched Schmidt for the team lead with 11 kills while Kennedy Brady added 11. Kora Kritzberger hit .429 with seven kills while also leading all players with a career-best seven blocks. 

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend at Gangelhoff Center, the Golden Bears picked up a pair of huge victories as they cruised to a sweep of #6 St. Cloud State on Friday before battling back for a five-set win against #5 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.

On Friday, serving once again proved to be key for CSP as they collected nine aces with just one service error while consistently pushing SCSU out of system on the night. The result was a huge .360-.149 edge in hitting in addition to an 8.0-2.0 edge in blocks in the win. Concordia and their nation-leading offense made it nine matches in a row over .300 hitting and six in a row over .340. Sophia Andersen collected nearly half of CSP's 38 kills on the night as she finished with 16 on 25 swings to collect a .520 hitting percentage. Ellie Sieling was the lone Golden Bear in double figures in digs as she put up 11 to go along with two aces in the win.

Trailing 14-11 with their backs against the wall in the fourth set on Saturday, the Golden Bears caught fire to score 29 of the final 41 points of the match to complete the comeback win. 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.
 
IN THE POLLS
Following their two wins last weekend, the Golden Bears remained at #3 in the latest poll. Concordia has been a mainstay near the top of the poll for over a decade as they did rank outside the top-10 for a single week from 2003 to 2021. The Golden Bears have spent an incredible 83 weeks at #1 since they debuted there in the 2004 preseason poll. Since the 2007 season, CSP has ranked #1 at least once in every season except 2019.

STAT LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears rank near the top of the nation in several statistical categories.

Teagan Starkey's 12.71 assists per set rank first in the country as she, along with Halle Bemmels, has guided the offense to a nation-leading .302 hitting percentage and a second-best 14.93 kills per set through 21 matches. Jasmine Mulvihill has been the top option in the high-powered attack as her 4.40 kills per set rank 10th in the nation and first in the NSIC while her 5.12 points per set rank sixth and first, respectively.

Kennedy Brady has been one of the most efficient hitters in the conference this year as her .380 hitting percentage ranks 23rd in the country and third in the league while Katie Mattson isn't far behind at .330, good for seventh in the conference. Mattson also ranks 10th with 0.94 blocks per set. Ellie Sieling ranks second in the conference with 0.44 service aces per set while Emma Schmidt ranks fourth with 0.43 per set.

ALL-TIME RANKS
After surpassing 1,000 career kills in the opening weekend of the season, Jasmine Mulvihill has continues to climb the ranks at CSP. Her 1,262 career kills are good for 13th in program history as she sits 19 kills behind Kelsey Kyro in 11th and 63 behind Cassie Haag in 10th. Mulvihill's 4.06 career kills per set are 0.31 ahead of Jill Kalvik in second place while her 4.40 kills per set on the season are third-best at Concordia.