ST. PAUL, Minn. – The third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-4, 17-3 NSIC) dropped the regular season finale to second-ranked Wayne State (29-1, 19-1 NSIC) in five sets (19-25, 25-16, 25-21, 18-25, 8-15) on Saturday afternoon at Gangelhoff Center.
 
With the win, the Wildcats claimed the NSIC regular season crown outright and earned the first seed in next week's NSIC Tournament set to be played at Gangelhoff Center from Friday to Sunday. The Golden Bears finished in a tie for second place in the conference with Minnesota Duluth and have earned the second seed based on strength of schedule tiebreak criteria. The Golden Bears will face seventh-seeded Northern State in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday at noon at Gangelhoff Center. TICKETS | TOURNAMENT WEBSITE
 
WSC made it three wins in three meetings with Concordia this season as the Golden Bears dropped to 35-17 against the Wildcats all-time and 19-10 on their home court. The loss was also CSP's first at Gangelhoff Center this season as they dropped to 13-1 at home.
 
Both offenses were clicking in the match as CSP finished the match at .331 hitting while WSC put up a mark of .329 The Golden Bears added a 74-57 edge in kills but committed 20 hitting errors compared to 11 for Wayne State. Serving played a role in the match as both teams collected eight aces, but the Wildcats did not have a service error while Concordia had 14. The Golden Bears also had a 13.0-12.0 advantage in blocks while both teams had 63 digs.
 
Teagan Starkey tallied the fourth highest assist total in the 25-point scoring format at CSP as she put up 71 digs to go along with seven assists in the match. All five hitters collected double figures in kills on the day, led by 18 from Katie Mattson. Mattson hit an efficient .464 in the match as she reached double digits in kills for the third time in four matches.
 
Emma Schmidt and Jasmine Mulvihill each contributed double-doubles as Schmidt had 16 kills and 16 digs while Mulvihill had 15 kills, 14 digs, four blocks and two aces in the loss. Sophia Andersen added 14 kills, four digs and a block while Kennedy Brady had 11 kills and five blocks. Ellie Sieling chipped in a team-best 15 digs.
 
NSIC Player of the Year Taya Beller led all players in the match with 21 kills while hitting .436 for the Wildcats. Kelsie Cada chipped in 15 kills and 12 digs in the win.
 
After the Golden Bears jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the opening set, the Wildcats flipped the script with nine of the next 11 to build an 11-7 lead of their own. That lead grew to six at 15-9 and eight at 22-14 before Wayne State took a 1-0 lead with a 25-19 set win.
 
Concordia got off to another strong start in the second as they scored four points in a row to take an 8-2 lead before expanding the lead from there. It eventually grew to 10 as CSP doubled up WSC at 20-10 as the Golden Bears went on to even the match with a 25-16 victory in set two.
 
The Wildcats opened the third set on a 3-1 run, but Concordia wasted little time in shifting the momentum in their favor with eight of the next 10. With the CSP lead at six at 18-12, Wayne State trimmed it to two at 19-17, but that would be all the closer they would get as the Golden Bears took the set by a score of 25-21 to pull within a set of victory.
 
Wayne State regained control in the fourth set as they built a 7-3 advantage before holding the Golden Bears at bay throughout. A 3-0 run midway through the set extended it to 15-8 as they went on to win the set by the same margin at 25-18 to force a fifth set.
 
With WSC holding a slim 4-3 lead in the fifth, the Wildcats rattled off a 4-0 run to balloon their lead to 8-3. The two teams traded points the rest of the way as CSP was unable to pull closer than four points before Wayne State secured the five-set win with a 15-8 win in the final set.