ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (14-1, 5-1 NSIC) is set for three matches at home this week as they host Sioux Falls on Tuesday night before hosting UMary on Friday and Minot State on Saturday for Homecoming weekend.
 
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.
 
SIOUX FALLS SERIES HISTORY
On Tuesday, the meeting between the Golden Bears and Cougars marks the 20th all-time meeting between the two schools with CSP holding an 13-6 record in the 19 previous meetings. Since Sioux Falls joined the NSIC, Concordia won the first nine contests, including six sweeps, but USF has taken three of the last six meetings. CSP and USF have met nine times in St. Paul with the Golden Bears going 7-2 in those meetings.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE COUGARS
Back on Oct. 29, 2022, Concordia saw their 16-match unbeaten run snapped at Sioux Falls in a five-set loss (19-25, 25-14, 25-15, 22-25, 8-15) in CSP's final NSIC road contest of the year.
 
The two teams could not have been much closer statistically on the day as Concordia had an 81-80 edge in points while USF had a 66-65 edge in kills. The Golden Bears held a slim 10.0-8.0 advantage in blocks while the Cougars finished with a 56-55 advantage in digs. Both teams tallied six aces. CSP also held a .309-.296 hitting edge, but that advantage disappeared in the final two sets as USF held a .432-.281 edge in the fourth and an even bigger .714-.118 edge in the fifth.
 
Concordia had a pair of hitters register career-highs in kills as Emma Schmidt tallied her fourth double-double in the past five matches with 21 kills and 13 digs while Katie Mattson filled the box score with 17 kills, five blocks, three digs and a .481 hitting percentage. Jasmine Mulvihill joined them in double figures with 11 kills to go along with six digs, two blocks and two aces.
 
Teagan Starkey reached 50 assists for the eighth time on the year, putting up 56 assists, 12 digs and two aces for her fifth double-double on the season. Ellie Sieling gave CSP three in double digits in digs with 10 while Sophia Andersen matched Mattson for the team lead with five blocks to go along with eight kills and four digs.
 
UMARY SERIES HISTORY
Heading into Friday's meeting between the Golden Bears and the Marauders, CSP has won all 23 meetings between the two schools. 20 of those 23 wins have been sweeps as Concordia has won 69 of 73 sets. After pushing the Golden Bears to five sets in 2007, UMary grabbed another set in 2017 before taking another in 2021 in Bismarck.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE MARAUDERS
On Homecoming weekend last year on Sept. 30, 2022, Concordia extended their streak to 16 consecutive sets won as they swept (25-17, 25-17, 25-11) the University of Mary.
 
Concordia's offense was firing on all cylinders as they hit .453 on the night with 47 kills and just eight errors on 86 attempts on the night. The .453 mark was the best for the team since they hit .600 against Minot State all the way back on Oct. 6, 2018 in St. Paul. CSP also held UMary to below .150 all three sets as they finished with 23 kills and an .065 hitting percentage in the loss.
 
The Golden Bears utilized 16 different players in the victory as 14 different players registered digs, nine different players registered kills and eight different players registered blocks in the win.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill tallied a team-best 14 kills with no errors on 20 attempts for a .700 hitting percentage to go along with three blocks in two sets of action. Emma Schmidt nearly collected a double-double with 10 digs, eight kills and a .615 hitting percentage in two sets of play while Ellie Sieling had 10 digs and five kills with .500 mark in her two sets.
 
MINOT STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears enter Saturday's meeting with the Beavers with a 13-0 record, claiming sweeps in 11 of the 13 meetings. CSP has won 39 of 41 sets as Minot State took a set in 2013 another in 2019, both in Minot.
 
LAST MEETING WITH THE BEAVERS
Just over a year ago on Oct. 1, 2022, CSP collected their sixth sweep in a row and seventh win in a row as they took all three sets (25-9, 25-14, 25-14) against Minot State on Homecoming at Gangelhoff Center.
 
One night after putting up their best hitting percentage since 2018 at .453, CSP surpassed that mark with an incredible mark of .535 in the win over Minot State. The Golden Bears needed just 71 swings to collect 43 kills while they committed just five errors. The mark was seventh-best in the DII era at CSP. On the other side, Concordia held Minot State to .050 hitting with 21 kills and 17 errors on 80 attempts.
 
CSP also won the serving and blocking battle as they held a 9-2 edge in aces as well as an 8.0-1.0 edge in blocks. They also doubled up MiSU in digs at 40-20.
 
All 17 Golden Bears saw action in the match as a dozen collected at least one kill and nine had at least one dig in the victory. Makenna Berger was the only CSP player to reach double figures in either as she finished with 11 digs, four kills, two aces and two assists while Emma Schmidt hit .750 with nine kills on 12 swings to go along with three blocks on the night.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, the Golden Bears tallied a pair of four-set road wins as they defeated MSU Moorhead on Friday and Northern State on Saturday.
 
On Friday, CSP put up their second-best hitting percentage of the season and their third-most kills as they collected 72 kills with 18 errors on 142 attempts for an efficient mark of .380 on the night. On the other side of the net, MSUM finished with 43 kills and a .230 hitting percentage in the loss. Concordia added a 54-42 edge in digs while MSU Moorhead edged CSP 3-2 in aces and 6.0-5.0 in blocks on the night.
 
It was a career night for Makenna Berger as she led all players with 21 kills, blowing past her previous best of 17. She hit .486 while adding six digs and two blocks in the win.
 
In Saturday's win, The Golden Bears were formidable at the net as they tallied 14.0 blocks in the win, registering their largest total in a four-set match since putting up 16 against SMSU on Sept. 14, 2019. Claudia Stahlke had a huge hand in that effort as her 11.0 blocks were the most in a four-set match in the 25-point scoring format at CSP and tied for most overall during that timeframe, matching Heather Schiller's 11.0 against Augustana on Oct. 2, 2015. The junior added a career-best 11 kills with just one error on 16 attempts for a hitting percentage of .625.
 
Stahlke was joined by Jasmine Mulvihill, Emma Schmidt and Sophia Andersen in double figures in kills as Mulvihill and Schmidt picked up double-doubles of their own. Mulvihill finished with a match-best 18 kills to go along with 13 digs while Schmidt finished with 12 kills, 13 digs and four blocks in the win. Andersen added 13 kills, four blocks and four digs as well.
 
IN THE POLLS
After two wins over the weekend, 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.
 
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 1,656 career kills rank fourth in program history as she sits seven behind Kayla Koenecke in third and 26 behind Jill Kalvik in second. Mulvihill's 3.90 career kills per set are 0.15 ahead of Jill Kalvik as the program's all-time leader while her 4.58 points per set are also 0.15 ahead of Kalvik. The senior also needs just 102 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 877 career digs put her 123 shy of the mark. She also sits 219 kills away from the 1,000 kill club with 781 while junior Sophia Andersen has compiled 802 kills.