SEATTLE, Wash. – The top-seeded and third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (31-6) dropped a hard-fought four-setter (25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 26-28) to third-seeded and ninth-ranked West Texas A&M (33-4) in the NCAA Division II Championship match on Saturday night at Royal Brougham Pavilion on the campus of Seattle Pacific.
 
In a match filled with twists and turns that featured an incredible 42 ties and 19 lead changes, a 10^th title proved to be just out of CSP's grasp as CSP dropped to 9-2 in national championship matches and 77-10 in NCAA Tournament play with their 29-match Elite Eight winning streak snapped with the loss.
 
The Golden Bears fell to 3-1 in the all-time series and 1-1 in title matches as the Lady Buffs avenged a CSP sweep in the 2009 championship match to claim their third NCAA Championship in five trips to the title match.
 
The statistical margins were slim on the night as Concordia claimed a 67-62 edge in kills, a 63-56 edge in digs and a 6-5 edge in service aces while West Texas A&M led 12.0-7.0 in blocks as well as a .307-.261 hitting advantage while WT committed just three service errors compared to 10 for CSP.
 
Teagan Starkey finished with her third-largest assist total on the season and largest in a four-set match as she collected 63 assists to go along with eight digs and two aces on the night. She wraps up the season as the nation's leader in assists per set at 12.75.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill led the way offensively with 20 kills while she added eight digs and a pair of solo blocks on the night as she passed Tia Lindberg to move into seventh all-time at Concordia with 1,472 kills through her first three seasons.
 
Emma Schmidt, Katie Mattson and Makenna Berger joined Mulvihill in double figures with 13, 12 and 10, respectively, while Schmidt had a match-high 18 digs as well as two aces and Mattson had four digs and two blocks in the loss.
 
Starkey, Mulvihill and Schmidt were named NCAA All-Tournament Team with their efforts.
 
Ellie Sieling added 15 digs while Kennedy Brady closed out her career with eight kills and two blocks. Brady finished with 948 career kills while her 398 blocks and 0.92 blocks per set both rank eighth at Concordia.
 
West Texas A&M was led by a balanced attack as Kayla Elliott had 17 kills, Abi Nash had 15 and Tournament Most Outstanding Player Torrey Miller had 14. Blair Moreland had 26 assists while Ainsley Malis had 22 and Bryli Contreras had a team-best 17 digs in the win.
 
The margin could not have been any tighter throughout the first 29 points of the match as there were 12 ties and five lead changes to that point. With the Golden Bears trailing 14-13, they strung together three straight points to take their first lead larger than one at 16-14. Two points later, the Lady Buffs jumped back out front with a 4-0 run of their own to make it 19-17, but it would be CSP who would close it out strong. Still down a pair at 22-20, Concordia used an ace and four kills to surge past WT with a 5-1 run to win the set 25-23.
 
It was more of the same early in set two with five ties over the first 14 points before a 3-0 run turned a 7-6 deficit into a 9-7 lead for the Golden Bears. That lead grew to five a few points later at 14-9 following another 5-1 burst, but West Texas A&M battled back from there. WT grabbed three points in a row to spark a larger 10-3 run as they regained their advantage at 19-17. From there, the pendulum swung back and forth as CSP took the lead back at 20- with three points in a row only to see the Lady Buffs take it right back at 22-21. Concordia then pulled within two points of a 2-0 lead in the match as they jumped ahead 23-22, but one final 3-0 burst for WT evened the match at 1-1 as West Texas A&M took the set 25-23.
 
 Concordia got off to a strong start in the third set as they opened with seven of the first 10 points and nine of the first 14 to build a quick five-point edge. The lead remained at five at 13-8 before three consecutive points for West Texas A&M trimmed it down to two. The comeback continued a few points later as the Lady Buffs used a timely 6-1 run to key a decisive 12-4 finish to the set to win it 25-20 as CSP fell behind two sets to one.
 
The Golden Bears once again staked their claim on an early lead in the fourth as they rattled off a 5-0 run to start it off, but the Lady Buffs quickly turned the tide with an 6-1 run a couple points later to tie the score at 8-8. WT took the lead at 10-9 before extending that lead to three at 15-12, but Concordia rallied to regain the edge at 17-16 with a 4-0 run. West Texas A&M then was the first to 20 points as they used three in a row to build a 20-18 advantage, but again CSP showed their resilience as they powered their way to a 5-0 run to bring themselves within a pair of points of forcing a fifth set at 23-20. As was the story for much of the night, WT got some huge points when they needed them as they tied it up with three in a row before erasing a set point at 24-23. Back-to-back Miller kills pushed it to match point at 25-24, but the Golden Bears stayed alive by evening it up twice more before a double block for the Lady Buffs secured the title in a 28-26 set win.