ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (21-2, 14-1 NSIC) returns home for a Tuesday night matchup against Minnesota State (6-17, 5-10 NSIC) at Gangelhoff Center. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
 
MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Tuesday night's meeting with the Mavericks with a 33-4 record in 37 previous matchups. Concordia has been especially successful in recent years in the series as they have registered 15 consecutive wins dating back to the 2014 season. MSU's last win in the series came back on Sept. 16, 2014 in a four-setter in Mankato. In 16 meetings all-time in St. Paul, CSP has gone a perfect 16-0, winning 48 out of 52 sets on their home court.
 
LAST MEETING VS MSU
Three weeks ago on Oct. 4, the Golden Bears made it 22 consecutive sets won with a sweep of Minnesota State.
 
For the fourth match in a row, Concordia held their opponent below .100 hitting as Minnesota State put up a mark of .082 with 30 kills and 21 errors on 110 swings while CSP cleared .300 hitting for the seventh straight match at .342 with 46 kills and seven errors on 114 attempts.
 
CSP added a significant edge in blocks at 8.0-2.0 as well as a 51-47 edge in digs in the winning effort while MSU held an 8-5 advantage in service aces on the night.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill collected her sixth double-double of the season as she led the team with 13 kills, 11 digs and an ace while hitting .323. Kennedy Brady was nearly perfect offensively as she tallied nine kills with no errors on 12 swings for a .750 hitting percentage while leading the way with five blocks.
 
Emma Schmidt just missed a double-double with nine kills, nine digs and four blocks in a full stat line while Payton Stier paced all players with 13 digs in the win. Teagan Starkey assisted on 37 of the team's 46 kills to go along with six digs in the match.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Concordia extended their winning streak to 14 in a row as they defeated Upper Iowa in four sets at home on Thursday before sweeping Winona State on the road on Saturday.
 
On Thursday, Concordia reached double figures in aces for the second match in a row and fourth time on the season as they finished with 13 as a team, led by Payton Stier's seven. Her mark of seven aces was a new program-best in the 25-point scoring format.
 
The offense was evenly spread out with four different hitters collecting at least a dozen kills in the win. Jasmine Mulvihill led the way with 16 to go along with eight digs, three aces and three blocks while Emma Schmidt and Katie Mattson added 14 kills apiece. Schmidt hit .500 on the night while she added 14 digs for her fourth double-double of the year while Mattson hit .478 with three blocks. Sophia Andersen chipped in 12 kills and three digs of her own.
 
On Saturday, the Golden Bears limited the WSU attack as they held the Warriors to .073 hitting with 30 kills and 22 errors on 109 attempts. On the offensive end, Concordia collected 46 kills with 12 errors on their 117 swings for a mark of .291.
 
Teagan Starkey spread the ball around as she tallied 44 assists to go along with four blocks with four different hitters registering at least nine kills in the win. Sophia Andersen led the way with 11 kills while Emma Schmidt and Jasmine Mulvihill finished with 10 apiece. Schmidt added 11 digs for her second straight double-double while Mulvihill chipped in eight digs, two aces and two blocks. Katie Mattson needed just 14 attempts to collect nine kills for a .571 hitting percentage while she added five blocks on the night. Ellie Sieling led all players with 18 digs for the second match in a row as she fell one shy of her career-best.
 
With her 14.14 assists per set on the weekend, Starkey earned her sixth NSIC Setter of the Week selection on the season.
 
IN THE POLLS
Following their two wins last weekend, the Golden Bears moved up to #2 in the latest poll after spending the last five weeks at #3. 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.