ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #2 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (18-1, 9-1 NSIC) hits the road for a crucial weekend in NSIC play as they travel to #13 St. Cloud State (14-6, 7-4 NSIC) on Friday and #10 Minnesota Duluth (14-5, 7-4 NSIC) on Saturday.

BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
Fans are encouraged to buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.
 
WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC volleyball matches will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.

ST. CLOUD STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears have dominated the all-time series with the Huskies as they have claimed 33 wins in 36 previous meetings. CSP had claimed 27 consecutive wins heading into the 2019 meeting in St. Cloud before the Huskies pulled off a wild comeback to grab a five-set victory. Concordia got their revenge two weeks later as the Golden Bears knocked off SCSU in the NSIC title match to start a new stretch of six wins in the last seven meetings. In 15 meetings in St. Cloud, CSP has gone 13-2.

LAST MEETING VS SCSU
Back on Sept. 12, CSP kept its perfect start to the 2023 season intact with a three-set sweep of then-#6 St. Cloud State in a non-conference match at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bear attack was clicking against the Huskies behind Teagan Starkey as she distributed 44 assists in three sets to an attack that hit .440 with three players in double-figures. 

Junior Emma Schmidt had a strong all-around night, as well, leading the team with a .588 hitting percentage with 11 kills and just one error while adding 11 digs for a double-double. She was also perfect on the serve receive in 20 chances and a key contributor to Starkey's ability to set the attack.

Sophia Andersen added 13 kills on a .435 hitting night and Jasmine Mulvihill missed a double-double by just one dig with 10 kills and nine digs on the evening.

MINNESOTA DULUTH SERIES HISTORY
CSP enters Saturday's meeting with a record of 32-30 in the all-time series with UMD, including a record of 11-15 in Duluth. Concordia has had much more success recently in the series as they have claimed 27 wins in the last 36 meetings, including the last six in a row. Over the past 16 meetings, just four matches have gone three sets with seven going all five sets.

LAST MEETING VS UMD
In last year's NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament semifinal played at Rice Auditorium, the Golden Bears claimed a fourt-set win over the Bulldogs.

The Golden Bears compiled over a .400 hitting percentage while holding their opponents below .100 in a match as they finished at .417 while limiting UMD to an .083 mark. Concordia led in nearly every category as they nearly doubled up Minnesota Duluth in kills at 62-32 while also holding a 10.0-3.0 edge in blocks, a 47-32 edge in digs and a 6-5 edge in service aces.

It was another match with a balanced attack as four hitters contributed between 12 and 15 kills on the night, led by 15 from Katie Mattson. Mattson needed just 23 swings for her 15 kills as she hit .522 while also chipping in a match-high six blocks. Teagan Starkey once again eclipsed 50 assists with a tally of 52 assists, six digs, three aces and two blocks in a full stat line.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill followed Mattson with 14 kills and a .414 hitting percentage to go along with four digs, two blocks and two aces. Emma Schmidt added a double-double with 12 kills and 10 digs while Kennedy Brady hit an efficient .688 with 12 kills of her own. Makenna Berger just missed double figures with nine kills as well as four blocks and three digs.

LAST TIME OUT
Last Thursday, CSP grabbed a top-10 victory over seventh-ranked Southwest Minnesota State in four sets (25-18, 21-25, 25-17, 25-22) at Gangelhoff Center.

CSP finished the night with a 10-2 advantage in service aces while holding slim edges in nearly every other area. Emma Schmidt, Payton Stier, Ellie Sieling and Cassie Sieling each contributed multiple aces as Schmidt and Stier had three apiece and the Sielings had two apiece. Schmidt added 14 kills and 17 digs while Ellie Sieling led all players with 20 digs in the win.
 
 Concordia edged Southwest Minnesota State 65-54 in kills, 79-64 in digs, 6.0-5.0 in blocks and .278-.255 in hitting percentage in the win.
 
Offensively, Teagan Starkey dished out 57 assists to go along with 13 digs for her third double-double of the season while four hitters registered a dozen or more kills, earning her NSIC Setter of the Week honors for the fifth time this year. Jasmine Mulvihill led the way with 18 kills as she added 15 digs and hit .432 on the night. Katie Mattson was even more efficient with 12 kills on 19 swings for a .474 hitting percentage while Sophia Andersen tallied 13 kills, four digs and three blocks.

IN THE POLLS
After knocking off #7 SMSU last week, CSP held their spot at #2 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. Concordia has been a mainstay near the top of the poll for nearly two decades as they have ranked outside the top-10 for just three weeks since 2003, never ranking below #15. The Golden Bears have ranked #1 at least once in 16 of the past 18 seasons, including week two of this year. In total, CSP has spent an incredible 84 weeks at the top team in the country since debuting there in the 2004 preseason poll.

STAT LEADERS
So far this season, the Golden Bears rank near the top of the nation in several statistical categories.

Teagan Starkey's 13.38 assists per set rank first in the country as she has guided the offense to a nation-leading 15.44 kills per set and a third-best .298 hitting percentage through 19 matches. The Golden Bears also have two of the top five in kills per set in the NSIC as Sophia Andersen ranks second (3.84) and Jasmine Mulvihill ranks seventh (3.62). Mulvihill and Andersen also rank fourth (4.13) and fifth (4.12), respectively, in points per set.

Jamie Guptill has paced the squad with a .352 hitting percentage, good for seventh in the league, while Payton Stier ranks 12th with 0.37 aces per set and Emma Schmidt ranks 13th with 3.77 digs per set.

ALL-TIME RANKS
After surpassing 1,000 career kills in the opening weekend of the 2022 season, Jasmine Mulvihill has continued to climb the ranks at CSP. Her 1,700 career kills rank second in program history as she is 198 behind Emily Palkert in first. Mulvihill's 3.88 career kills per set are 0.13 ahead of Jill Kalvik in second place while her 4.56 points per set are also 0.13 ahead of Kalvik. The senior also needs just 60 more digs to become the 21st member of the 1,000 dig club and sixth member of the 1,000/1,000 club.

Junior Emma Schmidt is also nearing the 1,000 dig club as her 931 career digs put her 69 shy of the mark. She also sits 177 kills away from the 1,000 kill club with 823 while junior Sophia Andersen has compiled 851 kills.