CROOKSTON, Minn. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (17-2, 10-1 NSIC) won their 10^th straight match, including nine sweeps in a row, as they took all three sets at Minnesota Crookston (3-16, 2-9 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
 
CSP matched their longest winning streak since winning 13 straight from Oct. 13-Nov. 18, 2017 while their streak of nine straight sweeps is their most since sweeping 13 in a row from Sept. 29-Nov. 6, 2012. The Golden Bears also made it 36 consecutive wins, with 34 coming via the sweep, against UMC as they improved to 36-3 in the all-time series.
 
Concordia's offense continued to terminate at a high clip as their .479 hitting percentage was their second-best mark of the season and fourth mark above .400 in the past five matches. Through 11 conference matches, CSP's mark of .335 leads the league by .058 over St. Cloud State's .277. The Golden Bears also set a season high in kills in a three-set match as they collected 54 in the match, registering at least 16 in each set.
 
CSP added a 45-25 edge in digs, a 6.0-2.0 edge in blocks and a 4-1 edge in service aces to aid their effort.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill, the NSIC kills leader, hit .500 with a match-high 15 kills while adding three digs, two blocks and a pair of aces in the win. Kora Kritzberger was even more efficient as she needed just 10 swings to collect eight kills for an .800 hitting percentage while she also chipped in two aces in two sets. Emma Schmidt matched her with eight kills in addition to seven digs in her two sets of play.
 
Payton Stier was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in digs with 10 in two sets while Makenna Berger had seven digs and seven kills and Ellie Sieling had seven digs and an ace. Teagan Starkey put up 34 assists and five digs in the first two sets before Halle Bemmels picked up where she left off with 14 assists and three digs in the third set.
 
Audrey Cariveau led Minnesota Crookston with eight kills on the day while Natalie Koke had 19 assists, six digs and five kills in the loss.
 
After jumping out to a 5-2 lead in the first set, Concordia maintained a slim advantage until a 7-0 run pushed their lead to double figures at 20-10 to put it out of reach. UMC grabbed three of the next four points, but the Golden Bears closed it out with four in a row to win the set 25-13.
 
Minnesota Crookston grabbed an early lead in set two with the first two points and three of the first four, but that lead proved to be short-lived as 11 of the next 14 points went in favor of the Golden Bears as they doubled up the Golden Eagles at 12-6. UMC responded with a 5-1 run to trim it back to two, but that was all the closer they would get as CSP took a 2-0 lead with a 25-19 set win.
 
The third set mirrored the second as UMC took a 3-1 lead before CSP rattled off an extended run of 11-4 to jump ahead 12-7. Concordia held Minnesota Crookston at arm's length down the stretch as the Golden Eagles pulled no closer than four points before the Golden Bears took the set 25-18 and the match 3-0.
 
Concordia returns home for a pair of crucial NSIC contests as they host #7 St. Cloud State on Friday at 6 p.m. and #6 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday at 5 p.m.