ST. PAUL, Minn. - Second-seeded #4 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (25-2) will face seventh-seeded Winona State (18-9) in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. at Gangelhoff Center.

WINONA STATE SERIES HISTORY
Concordia's meeting with Winona State marks the 48th meeting between the two schools all-time. The Golden Bears hold a record of 36-11 against the Warriors. After WSU claimed wins in seven of the first nine contests against CSP, the Golden Bears have rattled off 34 wins in the past 38 meetings. Three of those four wins for the Warriors have come since 2019 as the WSU has taken three of the last seven. Concordia holds a 21-2 record in 23 home matchups.

LAST MEETING VS WSU
Back on Sept. 23 in the home opener, Concordia swept Winona State at Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears controlled play in nearly every aspect of play as they held advantages of 41-22 in kills, 50-34 in digs, 10.0-2.0 in blocks and 7-2 in aces to aid their effort. Efficiency was also in Concordia's favor as they hit .364 or better in each of the final two sets to finish at .319 for the match while holding WSU to below .100 for all three sets for a mark of .041 overall.
 
Sophia Andersen and Jasmine Mulvihill combined for 23 of the team's 41 kills as Andersen led all players with 13 kills to go along with three blocks and three digs with a .407 hitting percentage on 27 attempts. Mulvihill was even more efficient as she hit .450 with 10 kills while adding six digs. 

Andersen was one of three Golden Bears with at least three blocks as Claudia Stahlke contributed a career-best six blocks in her first career start while Teagan Starkey added three of her own. Stahlke added four kills and a pair of digs while Starkey put up 35 assists. 

Emma Schmidt and Ellie Sieling each reached double figures in digs as Schmidt picked up a match-high 12 digs to go along with six kills and Sieling chipped in 11 digs and three aces in the victory.

NSIC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Entering this year, Concordia has gone 28-8 overall in the conference tournament in 14 previous trips. In those previous trips, CSP has reached the title match 10 times and has won six titles (2004, 2005, 2006, 2015, 2016 and 2019). The Golden Bears have gone 12-2 in opening round matches as they have advanced to at least the semifinals in all but two seasons. Last season, Concordia defeated NSU and UMD before falling in five sets to SCSU in the championship match.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, CSP closed out the regular season with sweeps of Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State as they extended their winning streak to seven.

On Friday, Emma Schmidt became the 21st member of the 1,000 dig club in program history. Schmidt filled the box score as she matched Jasmine Mulvihill with a match-best 15 digs to go along with a match-high 12 kills. She added a pair of blocks and a pair of aces in the win. Her 15 digs brought her career total to 1,003 as she became the first to reach the mark since Tori Hanson in 2018.

On Saturday, Jasmine Mulvihill became the 22nd member of the 1,000 dig club and seventh member of the 1,000/1,000 club in program history. 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.

With their performances on the weekend, Katie Mattson was named NSIC Offensive Player of the Week while Teagan Starkey earned NSIC Setter of the Week honors. Mattson hit .600 with a team-best 3.50 kills per set and 1.00 blocks per set while Starkey contributed 12.83 assists per set while guiding the offense to a .378 hitting percentage.

IN THE POLLS
After extending their winning streak to seven over the weekend, CSP held their place at #4 in the AVCA Coaches Poll for the fourth week in a row 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.

ALL-NSIC PICKS
Last Thursday, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference released the 2023 Volleyball All-Conference Teams and Concordia-St. Paul had Sophia Andersen, Teagan Starkey, Jasmine Mulvihill, Katie Mattson and Emma Schmidt named to the First Team while Jamie Guptill was named to the Second Team.

For the second year in a row, the Golden Bears matched their program record set back in 2008 with six All-NSIC picks. CSP also extended their streak to 21 consecutive seasons with at least four all-conference picks as they have reached that mark every season since 2001.

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

Teagan Starkey's 13.30 assists per set rank first in the country as she has guided the offense to a nation-leading 15.47 kills per set and a second-best .318 hitting percentage through 27 matches. The Golden Bears also have two of the top seven in kills per set in the NSIC as Sophia Andersen ranks sixth (3.56) and Jasmine Mulvihill ranks seventh (3.55). Mulvihill and Andersen also rank fifth (4.12) and 10th (3.88), respectively, in points per set while Mulvihill and Andersen also rank ninth (.336) and 10th (.321), respectively, in hitting percentage.

Jamie Guptill has paced the squad with a .394 hitting percentage, good for third in the league and 15th in the nation, while Payton Stier ranks 12th with 0.38 aces per set and Emma Schmidt ranks 13th with 3.56 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 1,784 career kills rank second in program history as she is 114 behind Emily Palkert in first. Mulvihill's 3.85 career kills per set are 0.10 ahead of Jill Kalvik in second place while her 4.54 points per set are 0.11 ahead of Kalvik. The senior also became the 22nd member of the 1,000 dig club and seventh member of the 1,000/1,000 club on Saturday at SMSU as she is up to 1,008 career digs.

Junior Emma Schmidt also reached the 1,000 dig club last weekend as she sits at 1,006. She also sits 86 kills away from the 1,000 kill club with 914 while junior Sophia Andersen has compiled 916 kills.