MARSHALL, Minn. – Senior
Jasmine Mulvihill became the 22
nd member of the 1,000 dig club and seventh member of the 1,000/1,000 club in program history as the fourth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (25-2, 16-2 NSIC) extended their winning streak to seven with a sweep (25-18, 25-17, 25-14) of sixth-ranked Southwest Minnesota State (23-5, 14-4 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Bears secured the second seed in the NSIC Volleyball Tournament and will host seventh-seeded Winona State in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.
For the second day in a row, the Golden Bears had a player reach the illustrious 1,000 dig mark as Mulvihill hit the mark one day after
Emma Schmidt did so against Sioux Falls. Mulvihill finished a kill shy of a double-double with a match-best 10 digs to go along with nine kills and a pair of blocks. She joins Mandy Horazdovsky, Jessica Lucia,
Whitney Meierotto-Simon, Megan Carlson, Kayla Koenecke and Anna Schlaak in reaching both 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs at CSP.
The victory was Concordia's seventh in the last eight meetings with the Mustangs and second this season as they improved to 43-27-1 in the all-time series and 15-10 in Marshall.
It was another match in which the Golden Bears were highly efficient offensively while stifling their opponents defensively. CSP cleared .400 hitting for the fifth time in six matches and seventh time on the season while holding their opponents below .100 for the second match in a row and sixth time on the year. CSP finished at .417 with 48 kills while SMSU was held to .071 with 22 kills.
The Golden Bears added a 42-29 edge in digs as well as a 9.0-3.0 edge in blocks and a 7-3 edge in aces in the victory.
Concordia's two middles were highly efficient on the day as both finished with a match-best 12 kills with
Jamie Guptill hitting .625 on 16 swings and
Katie Mattson hitting .611 on 18 swings. Mattson led all players with five blocks while Guptill had two.
Teagan Starkey compiled 37 assists, eight digs and three blocks while
Emma Schmidt filled the stat sheet with nine digs, seven kills, a career-high five aces and three blocks in the win.
The first set proved to be the most hotly contested on the afternoon as it featured eight ties and four lead changes before CSP pulled away late. With the score tied at 11-11, the Golden Bears scored 10 of the next 13 points to build a 21-14 lead before winning the set by the same margin at 25-18.
The Golden Bears opened the second set with the first three points and six of the first eight as they led from start to finish. The lead eventually grew to eight at 18-10 before the two teams traded points until a final mark of 25-17.
The Mustangs grabbed an early 5-4 lead in the third, but it would not last as Concordia answered with a 13-2 run to take the lead for good at 17-7. That lead ballooned to 11 as the Golden Bears finished it off at 25-14.
