WAYNE, Neb. – The second-seeded and third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (28-5) defeated third-seeded and sixth-ranked Minnesota Duluth (27-5) in four sets (25-9, 23-25, 25-17, 25-13) in the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament semifinal played at Rice Auditorium on the campus of Wayne State.
 
For the seventh season in a row and 18th time in the past 19 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey, the Golden Bears will play for a region title as they improved to 75-9 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. CSP also extended their streak to eight consecutive NCAA Tournament wins over the Bulldogs dating back to 2007 as they moved to 8-2 in tourney action and 32-30 overall against UMD.
 
Concordia will face fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked St. Cloud State in the region championship tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Rice Auditorium as the Golden Bears look to claim their 12^th region crown in 18 trips to the title match. CSP's last region championship came back in 2017 as Concordia went on to claim their ninth NCAA title.

The Golden Bears and the Huskies are set to meet for the third time this season with CSP claiming a sweep back on Oct. 14 before SCSU pulled out a five-set win in last weekend's NSIC Championship match. Concordia holds a 31-3 record against St. Cloud State with the Golden Bears winning the only previous NCAA Tournament meeting, a four-set win in last season's region quarterfinal.
 
Emma Schmidt said of the win, "It's awesome. I think one thing that really showed was our positive attitude. Even when we were down, we came together as a group and it paid off."
 
For the third time this season, the Golden Bears compiled over a .400 hitting percentage while holding their opponents below .100 in a match as they finished at .417 while limiting UMD to an .083 mark. Concordia led in nearly every category as they nearly doubled up Minnesota Duluth in kills at 62-32 while also holding a 10.0-3.0 edge in blocks, a 47-32 edge in digs and a 6-5 edge in service aces.
 
"I thought we did a really good job from a serve receive standpoint, getting into system, and I thought we served pretty aggressive to get them out of system a bit. Us being in system, we have a lot of options and Teagan did a good job of spreading the offense around, and our girls were pretty efficient tonight," said Brady Starkey of the team's performance. Teagan Starkey added, "I'm lucky because I have really good passers and without them I wouldn't be able to get as many one-on-ones as I was able to get tonight. All my hitters are really good options so I can set whoever and it doesn't really matter because they can all put the ball down."
 
It was another match with a balanced attack as four hitters contributed between 12 and 15 kills on the night, led by 15 from Katie Mattson. Mattson needed just 23 swings for her 15 kills as she hit .522 while also chipping in a match-high six blocks. Teagan Starkey once again eclipsed 50 assists with a tally of 52 assists, six digs, three aces and two blocks in a full stat line.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill followed Mattson with 14 kills and a .414 hitting percentage to go along with four digs, two blocks and two aces. Emma Schmidt added a double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs while Kennedy Brady hit an efficient .688 with 12 kills of her own. Makenna Berger just missed double figures with nine kills as well as four blocks and three digs.
 
Ellie Sieling led all players with 14 digs while Cassie Sieling added eight digs of her own in the win.
 
Sydney Lanoue and Samatha Paulsen each had 10 kills for the Bulldogs while Cianna Selbitschka compiled 10 digs in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears came out firing in the opening set as they quickly ran out to a 9-2 lead before adding on from there. A 4-0 run a few points later extended the lead to double figures at 14-4 before another 6-0 run later in the set further extended the lead en route to a resounding 25-9 set win to start the match.
 
CSP looked poised to continue their run in the second set as they opened on a 6-1 run before ballooning the lead out to seven at 14-7, but the Bulldogs battled back. UMD closed the gap to two with five straight points before taking a 19-18 lead with a 3-0 run later in the set. Concordia briefly regained the lead with two points in a row before another 3-0 burst gave the Bulldogs a 22-20 edge. The pendulum continued to swing as three consecutive points for the Golden Bears brought CSP to within two points of a 2-0 lead in the match, but UMD strung together three points in a row one more time to win the set 25-23.
 
The two teams jostled for the lead early in the third set as the first 13 points featured six ties and a pair of lead changes. Concordia rattled off a 3-0 run to take the lead for good at 8-6 before giving themselves some breathing room with four points in a row a little later to make it 14-9. The Bulldogs managed to close the gap to two at 14-12, but that would be all the closer they would get as an 8-1 burst in favor of CSP put it out of reach at 22-13. The lead remained at seven or more the rest of the way as the Golden Bears took a 2-1 lead with a 25-17 win.
 
The momentum carried over into the fourth set as CSP used a quick 4-0 run to build a 5-1 advantage. They would not trail the rest of the set as UMD trimmed it to two at 7-5 before an extended 10-3 run gave Concordia a decisive edge at 17-8. The Golden Bears continued to pour it on as they went on to win the set 25-13 and the match 3-1.