ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #4 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (19-2, 10-2 NSIC) is set for the first of four straight home matches this weekend as they host Bemidji State (8-12, 5-7 NSIC) on Friday at 6 p.m. and Minnesota Crookston (3-17, 1-11 NSIC) on Saturday at 5 p.m.

BEMIDJI STATE SERIES HISTORY
On Friday, the Golden Bears meet the Beavers for the 47th time in program history as Concordia enters with a record of 37-8-1 against BSU. Concordia has held a decisive edge in recent history in the series with 35 consecutive wins dating back to the 2002 season. During that span, all but three of Concordia's wins have been sweeps. In 23 meetings in St. Paul, CSP has gone 20-3.

LAST MEETING VS BSU
In the last meeting back on Oct. 7, 2022, the Golden Bears picked up a sweep at Bemidji State.

The Golden Bears controlled play from the serving line as they set a new program record in a three-set match and matched the overall school record with 16 aces in the win. The only two previous times that Concordia reached the mark came all the way back in 2002, prior to the switch to the 25-point scoring format. CSP had at least four aces in all three sets, including a staggering eight in the second set. Abby Stark and Ellie Sieling combined for 10 of the team's 16 aces with both collecting five apiece. Sieling added six digs while Stark had five.
 
Concordia's offense also remained red hot as they needed just 83 swings to collect 43 kills, hitting .422 in the win. It was the ninth match in a row that the Golden Bears cleared .300 hitting and the third time in four matches their cleared .400. Katie Mattson was nearly perfect on her 11 swings as she finished with eight kills and a .727 hitting percentage while Makenna Berger used just 13 attempts in two sets to pick up nine kills and a hitting percentage of .692. Teagan Starkey pulled the strings with 36 assists while chipping in three digs and a pair of aces in the win.

MINNESOTA CROOKSTON SERIES HISTORY
Saturday's contest between CSP and Minnesota Crookston marks the 40th meeting between the two programs with Concordia holding a 36-3 edge in the previous meetings. After three straight wins for Minnesota Crookston to begin the series, Concordia has rattled off 36 wins in a row with 33 sweeps dating back to 2000. Minnesota Crookston's last win in the series came back on Oct. 29, 1999 in St. Paul. In 19 meetings all-time in St. Paul, CSP has won 18 of them.

LAST MEETING VS UMC
Back on Oct. 8, 2022, CSP won their 10th straight match, including nine sweeps in a row, as they took all three sets at Minnesota Crookston.

Concordia's offense continued to terminate at a high clip as their .479 hitting percentage was their second-best mark of the season and fourth mark above .400 in the past five matches. Through 11 conference matches, CSP's mark of .335 leads the league by .058 over St. Cloud State's .277. The Golden Bears also set a season high in kills in a three-set match as they collected 54 in the match, registering at least 16 in each set.
 
Jasmine Mulvihill hit .500 with a match-high 15 kills while adding three digs, two blocks and a pair of aces in the win. Kora Kritzberger was even more efficient as she needed just 10 swings to collect eight kills for an .800 hitting percentage while she also chipped in two aces in two sets. Emma Schmidt matched her with eight kills in addition to seven digs in her two sets of play.

Payton Stier was the lone Golden Bear to reach double figures in digs with 10 in two sets while Makenna Berger had seven digs and seven kills and Ellie Sieling had seven digs and an ace. Teagan Starkey put up 34 assists and five digs in the first two sets before Halle Bemmels picked up where she left off with 14 assists and three digs in the third set.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, CSP went 1-1 as they fell to #13 St. Cloud State in four sets on Friday before sweeping #10 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday.

On Friday, serving played a major role in the outcome of the match as St. Cloud State tallied 11 service aces with just two service errors while Concordia managed six aces with nine errors from the serving line. The Golden Bears led in several other categories on the night, holding a 54-51 edge in kills and an 8.0-7.0 edge in blocks while hitting .217 compared to .228 for SCSU.

Three different CSP hitters registered double figures in kills, led by 14 from Sophia Andersen and 13 from Emma Schmidt. Andersen added five digs while Schmidt chipped in four blocks and four digs. Jasmine Mulvihill picked up a double-double with 11 kills and a team-best 14 digs to go along with three blocks.

On Saturday, Emma Schmidt led the Golden Bears in both kills and digs as she collected 15 kills and 13 digs for her 10th double-double of the season. She was joined in double figures in digs by Sophia Andersen and Ellie Sieling, both with 11. Andersen added four kills while Sieling had three assists.

IN THE POLLS
After going 1-1 over the weekend, CSP dropped to #4 in the AVCA Coaches Poll after spending five weeks at #2. 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 13.25 assists per set rank first in the country as she has guided the offense to a nation-leading 15.31 kills per set and a second-best .293 hitting percentage through 21 matches. The Golden Bears also have two of the top seven in kills per set in the NSIC as Sophia Andersen ranks second (3.72) and Jasmine Mulvihill ranks seventh (3.51). Mulvihill and Andersen also rank sixth (4.05) and eighth (3.99), respectively, in points per set.

Jamie Guptill has paced the squad with a .362 hitting percentage, good for fifth in the league, while Payton Stier ranks 11th with 0.36 aces per set and Emma Schmidt ranks 13th with 3.64 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 1,718 career kills rank second in program history as she is 180 behind Emily Palkert in first. Mulvihill's 3.86 career kills per set are 0.11 ahead of Jill Kalvik in second place while her 4.54 points per set are also 0.11 ahead of Kalvik. The senior also needs just 42 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 948 career digs put her 52 shy of the mark. She also sits 149 kills away from the 1,000 kill club with 851 while junior Sophia Andersen has compiled 870 kills.