ST. PAUL, Minn. – The sixth-ranked Concordia Golden Bears volleyball team (2-0) picked up their second sweep of the day as they took all three sets (25-23, 25-19, 25-20) against Seattle Pacific (1-1) on Friday night in the Concordia-St. Paul Volleyball Tournament at Gangelhoff Center.
 
For the second season in a row and the fourth time in the past five seasons, CSP opened the year with two wins on opening day as they won the first ever matchup between the two schools.
 
CSP collected 50 kills with just 17 errors to finish the match with a .303 hitting percentage while the Falcons picked up 29 kills in the match. The Golden Bears added a 45-36 advantage in digs to go along with an 8-6 edge in digs to aid the victory.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill carried the load offensively for the Golden Bears as she turned 18 of her 35 attempts into kills to finish with a .371 hitting percentage to go along with 10 digs to tally her first double-double of the year. Katie Mattson nearly joined her in double figures with nine kills while hitting .389.
 
Teagan Starkey orchestrated the offense with a career-best 42 assists as she fell two digs shy of a double-double with eight. Emma Schmidt contributed nine digs, seven kills and two blocks while Ellie Sieling chipped in nine digs, four assists and two aces.
 
Lindsey Lambert just missed a double-double for SPU as she put up a match-high 13 digs to go along with nine assists in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears found themselves in a deep early hole as the Falcons scored the first six points of the match and eight of the first nine, but they quickly battled back to take the lead. Still trailing by four at 12-8, CSP rattled off an extended 10-2 burst to jump ahead 18-14. SPU turned the tide with five of the next six before tying the score at 21-21. The two teams swapped the next four points before kills from Mattson and Mulvihill sealed the 25-23 set win.
 
Concordia got off to a better start in set two as they grabbed five of the first six points to take the lead for good. SPU closed the gap to one at 7-6 and again back down to two a few more times, including as late as 17-15, but that would be all the closer they would get as the Golden Bears doubled their lead in the match as they took the second set 25-19.
 
For the second time in three matches, it was the visitors from Seattle Pacific that built an early advantage as they opened on a 5-1 run. The lead would not last again, however, as CSP answered with five of the next six before a 4-0 run a few points later gave the Golden Bears a 12-9 edge. SPU managed to tie it back up at 14-14 before Concordia secured the lead for good with the next four points in a row. CSP ended up finishing off the sweep with a 25-20 win in the third.
 
CSP will play two more matches tomorrow as they take on Oklahoma Baptist at 11:30 a.m. and Drury at 4 p.m.