ST. PAUL, Minn. – The third-ranked and second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul (26-4) advanced to the NSIC Tournament Championship with a sweep (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) of third-seeded and fourth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (26-4) in the semifinal on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears moved to 28-7 in the NSIC Tournament all-time and will take on the winner of St. Cloud State and Augustana in Sunday's championship match scheduled for 1 p.m. CSP reaches the title match for the 10
th time in program history as they look to secure their seventh crown and first since 2019. CSP also regained the edge over UMD in the all-time series as they improved to 31-30 with their fifth win in a row in the series.
Despite CSP taking all three sets, it was an even contest statistically as UMD held edges of 47-43 in kills and 46-43 in digs while Concordia held advantages of 5-3 in aces and 8.0-7.0 in blocks in the win. Efficiency played a major role in the win as the Golden Bears hit a solid .305 with just 11 hitting errors while the Bulldogs committed 20 errors to finish with a mark of. 231.
Setter
Teagan Starkey got all her hitters involved as all five registered between eight and 10 kills while she compiled 36 assists, 10 digs and an ace for her sixth double-double of the season. Starkey was joined in double figures in digs with
Emma Schmidt, who finished with a match-high 13 digs to go along with eight kills, two blocks and a .304 hitting percentage.
Jasmine Mulvihill was the lone Golden Bear in double figures in kills with 10 while she added five digs, four blocks and a pair of aces in the win.
Katie Mattson followed with nine kills and five blocks while
Kennedy Brady hit an extremely efficient .727 with eight kills on 11 swings.
Sophia Andersen added eight kills of her own.
Cianna Selbitschka and Sydney Lanoue each collected 13 kills for Minnesota Duluth as Selbitschka finished with nine digs and Lanoue had eight in the loss.
The Golden Bears got off to strong start on the night as they scored four of the first five points and eight of the first 11 to build a comfortable early advantage in the first set. CSP used a 4-0 run midway through the set ballooned the lead out to nine at 17-8 and held that same advantage at 21-12 before the Bulldogs battled back to within three with a 9-3 run of their own. Brady put it away with a kill as Concordia took the first set 25-21.
CSP opened with three of the first four points in the second set, but Minnesota Duluth quickly flipped the script with 10 of the next 15 to build an 11-8 lead. That lead reached five at 17-12 before a 5-1 Golden Bear run trimmed it to one at 18-17. The two teams traded points from there as UMD held a 22-20 edge, but Concordia surged to the finish line with another 5-1 burst to win the set 25-23.
That momentum carried into the third set as the Golden Bears once again built an edge with five of six, but UMD evened it back up with four points of their own. The pendulum continued to swing back and fourth for the rest of the match as two points later, CSP was back on the attack with a 7-1 run to build a 13-7 lead. A 5-0 Minnesota Duluth run a few points later closed the gap back down to one at 16-15 before a 6-1 Concordia run pushed it back to six at 22-16. The Bulldogs had one more run in them as they tied the score with six consecutive points, but Concordia finished the job with a 3-1 run to win it 25-23.
