ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-2, 7-1 NSIC) kicks off a three-match road trip with a Tuesday night matchup at Minnesota State (4-12, 3-5 NSIC). First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m.
 
BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
Fans are encouraged to buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.
 
WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC volleyball matches will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
 
MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Thursday night's meeting with the Mavericks with a 32-4 record in 36 previous matchups. While Concordia has dominated on their home court with a record of 16-0, CSP has also had success in Mankato as they have claimed 13 wins in 16 trips. Concordia has been especially successful in recent years in the series as they have registered 14 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.
 
LAST MEETING VS MSU
Back on Oct. 28, 2021, Concordia cruised to a sweep (25-14, 25-12, 25-12) of Minnesota State at Gangelhoff Center.
 
A dominant serving performance coupled with some solid defense led to a win for the Golden Bears as the team tallied 12 aces while holding MSU to -.020 hitting for the night as they limited the Mavericks to 19 kills and 21 hitting errors on 99 attempts. The 12 aces matched their season-best in a three set match while they held their opponent below .000 hitting for the second time this year.
 
Concordia collected 41 kills on 100 swings to finish with a .270 hitting percentage while they also claimed a 55-38 edge in digs and a 5.0-3.0 edge in blocks.
 
Sophia Andersen and Riley Decker combined for nine of the team's 11 aces as both set career highs with Andersen finishing with five and Decker finishing with four. Andersen also contributed a career-best 16 digs as she fell a kill shy of a double-double. Decker added six digs. Payton Stier added a career night of her own as she led all players with 18 digs to go along with two aces.
 
Offensively, Katie Mattson was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in kills with 11 as she hit .474 and chipped in four blocks. Kennedy Brady added four blocks of her own as well as nine kills in the win. Teagan Starkey and Ellie Veldman split setting duties with Starkey tallying 18 assists and Veldman tallying 16.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Over the weekend, CSP picked up their fifth and sixth consecutive sweeps as they defeated UMary and Minot State on homecoming weekend.
 
In Friday's win, Concordia's offense was firing on all cylinders as they hit .453 on the night with 47 kills and just eight errors on 86 attempts on the night. The .453 mark was the best for the team since they hit .600 against Minot State all the way back on Oct. 6, 2018 in St. Paul. CSP also held UMary to below .150 all three sets as they finished with 23 kills and an .065 hitting percentage in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears utilized 16 different players in the victory as 14 different players registered digs, nine different players registered kills and eight different players registered blocks in the win. Jasmine Mulvihill tallied a team-best 14 kills with no errors on 20 attempts for a .700 hitting percentage to go along with three blocks in two sets of action. Emma Schmidt nearly collected a double-double with 10 digs, eight kills and a .615 hitting percentage in two sets of play while Ellie Sieling had 10 digs and five kills with .500 mark in her two sets.
 
One night after putting up their best hitting percentage since 2018 at .453, CSP surpassed that mark with an incredible mark of .535 in the win over Minot State on Saturday. The Golden Bears needed just 71 swings to collect 43 kills while they committed just five errors. The mark was seventh-best in the DII era at CSP. On the other side, Concordia held Minot State to .050 hitting with 21 kills and 17 errors on 80 attempts.
 
All 17 Golden Bears saw action in the match as a dozen collected at least one kill and nine had at least one dig in the victory. Makenna Berger was the only CSP player to reach double figures in either as she finished with 11 digs, four kills, two aces and two assists while Emma Schmidt hit .750 with nine kills on 12 swings to go along with three blocks on the night.
 
The weekend's effort earned Jasmine Mulvihill NSIC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the third time this season and sixth time in her career while Starkey earned her fourth selection as NSIC Setter of the Week this year.