ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #3 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-3, 17-2 NSIC) grabbed a four-set win (25-17, 25-20, 24-26, 25-17) over Augustana (18-9, 10-9 NSIC) on Senior Night at Gangelhoff Center.
 
The Golden Bears head into the regular season finale against #2 Wayne State tomorrow at 2 p.m. trailing the Wildcats by one game in the NSIC standings. A win in tomorrow afternoon's contest would secure a share of CSP's 15^th NSIC Championship in 20 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey and their first since 2017.
 
Concordia also remained unbeaten on their home court this season as they improved to 13-0 at Gangelhoff Center while they moved to 29-2 all-time against the Vikings, winning all 14 matches in St. Paul.
 
CSP dominated at the net as they tallied 11.0 blocks compared to just one for the Vikings. It was the sixth time this season that the Golden Bears reached double figures in blocks and the third match in a row. The result was a .319-.169 advantage in hitting percentage and a 63-50 edge in kills for the night. CSP also held a 7-5 edge in aces and a 58-53 edge in digs in the win.
 
Emma Schmidt picked up her third straight double-double and eighth of the season as she led all players with 17 kills while adding 11 digs and two aces in the win. She was joined in double figures in kills by Jasmine Mulvihill with 14 and in digs by Ellie Sieling with a team-best 17. Mulvihill added six digs and four blocks while Sieling chipped in an ace.
 
Makenna Berger took advantage of her opportunity with nine kills in her two sets of action as she hit .533 on the night while Kennedy Brady and Katie Mattson had nine and seven kills, respectively. Brady added five blocks while Mattson had four. Teagan Starkey made it three straight matches with 50+ assists as she put up a season-best in a four-set match with 58, falling four assists short of her season high overall.
 
Maddy Guetter contributed a double-double with 15 kills and 10 digs for the Vikings while Kia Kriener led all players with 19 digs in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears played from behind for much of the early portions of the opening set as the Vikings jumped out to a 5-2 lead before maintaining that advantage until the 11-9 mark. CSP turned it around from there with four straight points and nine of the next 10 to take the lead for good at 18-12. That lead would not shrink below five for the rest of the set as Concordia cruised to a 25-17 set win.
 
The second set followed a similar script as Augustana strung together a 6-1 run to jump out to a 10-6 lead before CSP battled back. The lead remained at four at 15-11 and three at 17-14 before the Golden Bears took control with six points in a row and nine of 10 to build a 23-18 advantage. Augie took the next two points before CSP took a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 set win.
 
The Vikings once again got off to a fast start in the third with a 6-0 run to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 lead. The Augustana lead sat at five at 15-10 before Concordia mounted another run, this time an 8-3 burst, to even the match at 18-18. Augie recovered with the next three points in a row, but the Golden Bears answered with a 5-1 run to regain the lead at 23-22. Augustana would not go away easily, however, as they scored four of the next five to push it to a fourth set with a 26-24 set win.
 
Concordia turned the momentum back in their favor in the fourth set as they scored eight of the first 11 points to build a quick 8-3 edge. The lead reached six at 11-5 before the Vikings answered with three consecutive points to cut the deficit in half. That would be all the closer they would get, however, as a huge 8-0 run a few points later extended the lead all the way out to 11 as the Golden Bears doubled up the Vikings at 22-11. CSP eventually closed out the win with a 25-17.