DENVER, Colo. – The #6 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (6-0) remained unbeaten in 2022 as they claimed a four-set win (23-25, 25-15, 29-27, 25-16) over #18 Lewis (4-2) and a five-set win (25-19, 21-25, 25-12, 19-25, 15-12) over #3 Western Washington (5-1) on Friday at the Colorado Premier Challenge.
 
CSP moves into the gold bracket semifinal on Saturday as they take on #4 MSU Denver at 12:30 p.m. at Auraria Event Center. The winner advances to the championship match to be played at 8 p.m.
 
#6 Concordia-St. Paul 3, #18 Lewis 1
In the opening match of the weekend, the Golden Bears saw the Flyers claim the opening set, but CSP responded with wins in the next three sets to make it five wins in a row to start the season and six wins in six meetings with Lewis.
 
Concordia continued to collect kills at a high rate as they finished the match with 67 kills and a .288 hitting percentage after picking up 19 kills in each of the final two sets of the contest. CSP's defense limited Lewis to just 41 kills and a hitting mark of .176 in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears added comfortable advantages in digs (65-51) and service aces (7-4) while also edging the Flyers 7-6 in blocks.
 
Fresh off earning NSIC Player of the Week honors, the duo of Jasmine Mulvihill and Teagan Starkey played a big role in the victory. Mulvihill paced the squad in kills for the fifth consecutive match to start the season as she tallied a season-best 22 kills to go along with seven digs and three blocks while Starkey shattered her career best with 18 digs while also dishing out 55 assists in the win.
 
Ellie Sieling narrowly missed her first career double-double as she filled the stat sheet with 16 digs and nine assists while Emma Schmidt fell a kill shy with 12 digs, nine kills, three blocks and two aces in the match. Sophia Andersen and Kennedy Brady joined Mulvihill in double figures in kills as Andersen hit .323 with 14 kills and Brady hit .350 with 11 kills.
 
Andrea Zeiser led the Flyers with 11 digs while no Lewis hitter reached double digits in kills in the loss.
 
Big leads proved to be hard to come by in the first set as the lead never grew larger than three for either team throughout. A 4-1 burst late in the set turned a 17-17 tie into a 21-18 LU lead before they matched that margin at 23-20. CSP showed some resilience as they scored the next three in a row to tie it, but back-to-back points for Lewis secured a 25-23 win for the Flyers.
 
Lewis jumped out to a 5-3 lead in set two before Concordia turned the tide with a 4-0 run. With the score even at 8-8, the Golden Bears put it out of reach with nine of the next 10 points as they set the tone for the rest of the match. CSP eventually settled with a final margin of 10 with a 25-15 set win to even up the match at 1-1 heading to the third.
 
Concordia looked poised to cruise to another comfortable victory with seven of the first 10 points before pushing it to six at 15-9, but Lewis made it interesting from there. A 5-0 run a few points later gave the Flyers the lead at 19-18 to set up a race to the finish. The Golden Bears forced set point at 24-22 before LU forced one of their own with three consecutive points. The momentum swung back in CSP's favor with kills from Schmidt and Mulvihill before another Schmidt kill and a Schmidt ace on back-to-back points sealed a 29-27 victory.
 
The momentum carried over into the fourth set as CSP grabbed the first four in a row as they held an advantage until the 10-10 mark. Lewis remained within striking distance at 17-15, but they managed just one more point the rest of the way as Concordia closed on an 8-1 run to win the set 25-16 and the match 3-1.
 
#6 Concordia-St. Paul 3, #3 Western Washington 2
For the second time in three matches, Concordia face the all-important fifth set and came out on top. Two of the top-six teams in the nation traded blows as they went back and forth in the first four sets before CSP finished the job in the fifth.
 
The Golden Bears once again held a statistical advantage in nearly every category as their 71-49 edge in kills, aided by a .235-.152 hitting advantage, and 67-58 edge in digs made the difference on the night.
 
In a box score filled with loaded stat lines, five different CSP hitters reached double figures in kills while four hit that mark in digs and three delivered double-doubles in the winning effort.
 
Emma Schmidt paced all players with a career-high 22 digs while she matched Jasmine Mulvihill and Kennedy Brady with a team-best 15 kills in the win to deliver her second double-double of the year. Mulvihill chipped in 15 digs of her own to go along with three blocks and two aces for her third double-double of the season. Brady was once again the team's most efficient hitter as she needed just 28 swings to collect her 15 kills to finish with a .357 hitting percentage. The middle blocker also led the way with five blocks.
 
Teagan Starkey made it two double-doubles on the day as the sophomore setter once again surpassed her career-best with 62 assists while also picking up 10 digs. Sophia Andersen and Katie Mattson rounded out the offense as Andersen picked up 14 kills while Mattson had 10. Payton Stier finished with a season-high 12 digs as well.
 
Gabby Gunterman filled the stat sheet with 18 digs, 13 kills and four blocks to lead the way for the Vikings in the loss.
 
In the opening set of the night, Concordia let from wire-to-wire as they scored the first three points before eventually growing the lead to as many as nine at 21-12 before a late WWU push trimmed it to a final score of 25-19.
 
Concordia led again early in the second with five of the first seven points, but an 8-2 run in favor of Western Washington turned a 9-8 CSP lead into a 16-11 deficit. The Golden Bears clawed their way back to tie it up at 21-21, but a 4-0 run for the Vikings to close it out evened it up at 1-1.
 
CSP bounced back in a big way as a 17-4 burst after WWU took a 3-1 lead in set three provided the decisive edge. The lead grew to as many as 13 at the final mark of 25-12 as the Golden Bears pulled within a set of victory.
 
The Vikings would not go away, however, as they opened on a 10-3 run to take the lead for good in the fourth. A 7-1 run for Concordia trimmed the deficit all the way down to one at 14-13, but that would be all the closer they would get as a 25-19 win for Western Washington forced a winner-take-all fifth set.
 
The Golden Bears set the tone early in the fifth by taking the first two points before extending their cushion to four at 7-3. The Vikings were forced to play catch-up the rest of the way and eventually pulled with a point at 12-11, but Concordia finished strong with three of the final four points to take the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.