ST. PAUL, Minn. – The #6 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (1-0) opened the 2022 season with a sweep (25-15, 25-19, 25-23) of Ashland (0-1) on Friday afternoon at Gangelhoff Center at the Concordia-St. Paul Volleyball Tournament. CSP is back in action tonight as they take on Seattle Pacific (1-0) at approximately 7 p.m.
 
The Golden Bears made it 16 wins in 19 season openers under head coach Brady Starkey as they got off to a fast start before cruising to a three-set victory. CSP improved to 2-0 in the all-time series with the Eagles as they also claimed a sweep back in 2014 in St. Paul.
 
Concordia controlled nearly every aspect of play in the match as they finished with a .295-.097 edge in hitting percentage, a 44-31 edge in kills, a 5.0-2.0 edge in total blocks and a 4-1 edge in service aces in the win.
 
Two hitters finished in double figures in kills for the Golden Bears as Jasmine Mulvihill paced all players with 16 kills to go along with six digs and four blocks while Katie Mattson chipped in 10 kills. Mulvihill hit a solid .375 while Mattson was even better at .500. Emma Schmidt added eight kills and eight digs of her own.
 
In her Golden Bear debut, freshman Ellie Sieling reached double digits in digs with a team-best 11 digs while Teagan Starkey fell one assist shy of her career best with 37 in addition to her seven digs.
 
Ashland's Katie Thompson finished with a match-high 13 digs while Makenna Belcher paced the squad with 11 kills in the loss.
 
It was the Eagles that got out to an early lead with the first two points of the match, but Concordia quickly responded with seven of the next nine to build a three-point edge of their own. An 8-2 run a little later turned a 10-7 advantage into an 18-9 lead as it would not shrink below seven the rest of the way. The lead reached 10 at the final margin of 25-15 as CSP hit an efficient .371 in the set.
 
The Golden Bears took control early in set two as they used five straight points to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 6-2 lead. The two teams traded points from there as the lead remained at four at 13-9 until CSP rattled off another six in a row to push it to 19-9. The Eagles battled back with a 5-0 run a few points later and eventually closed the gap to within four at 23-19, but Concordia grabbed the final two points to take a 2-0 lead with a 25-19 set win.
 
Another 5-0 run in the opening stages of the third set put the CSP in front as they built a 6-3 edge. AU evened it back up at 6-6 with three straight points before Concordia regained the lead with the next two. That lead fluctuated between one and five points for much of the rest of the set until a 3-0 run in favor of Ashland evened up the score at 22-22. The Golden Bears rallied for three of the next four to complete the sweep with a 25-23 win.