ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (22-2, 15-1 NSIC) won their 15^th straight match with a sweep (25-17, 25-16, 25-20) of Minnesota State (6-18, 5-11 NSIC) on Tuesday night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
CSP continued their longest winning streak since 2016 while they also made it 16 wins in a row against the Mavericks, improving to 34-4 in the all-time series and 17-0 on their home court.
 
For the 12^th time in the past 14 matches, Concordia's offense cleared .300 hitting as they finished at .337 with 46 kills and 12 errors on 101 attempts. With the effort, the Golden Bears moved to a nation-leading .305 on the team, including a mark of .330 in NSIC play. CSP also held MSU to .105 hitting with 29 kills and 19 errors on 114 attempts.
 
The Golden Bears added a 56-41 edge in digs, an 8.0-5.0 edge in blocks and a 7-5 edge in aces in the win.
 
Leading the way in the digs category was freshman Ellie Sieling, who finished with 17 digs and an ace on the night, marking her fifth straight match in double figures and third straight with at least 17. She was joined in double figures with Emma Schmidt, who finished with 13 digs, eight kills, three aces and two blocks, as well as Jasmine Mulvihill with a team-best 13 kills, 10 digs, three aces and three blocks. Mulvihill's double-double was her eighth of the season.
 
Sophia Andersen fell one kill shy of Mulvihill's mark with 12 while hitting an efficient .440 with three digs on the night. Kennedy Brady was even more efficient as she needed just 10 swings to collect eight kills as she hit .700 in the win while also picking up three blocks. Teagan Starkey added 41 assists, four digs and a solo block in the win.
 
Emma Loveall paced the Mavericks with nine kills while Sophie Tietz collected nine digs, four kills, three aces and three blocks in the loss.
 
After the Mavericks took four of the first six points of the match, Concordia responded with an 11-2 run to take the lead for good at 13-6. A 5-0 run for MSU later in the set closed the gap to 19-16, but that would be all the closer they would get as CSP finished with six of the final seven to win the set 25-17.
 
With the Golden Bears holding a slim 7-6 edge in the second, they doubled up MSU with a 7-1 run to make it 14-7 midway through the set. The Mavericks once again pulled to within four at 14-10 with three straight points and again at 19-15 with four more before another 6-1 run for Concordia closed it out at 25-16.
 
CSP wasted little time building a decisive advantage in the third set as they scored four of the first five before holding off Minnesota State the rest of the way. A 3-0 run at the midway point of the set expanded the lead to six at 17-11 before a 6-1 run the other way trimmed the margin down to one at 18-17. The Golden Bears would not relinquish the lead, however, as they rattled off six of seven en route to winning the set 25-20 to complete the sweep.
 
The Golden Bears are back on the road this weekend as they travel to #5 Southwest Minnesota State on Friday and Sioux Falls on Saturday.