ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded and second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (29-2) swept (25-16, 25-20, 25-20) eighth-seeded Oklahoma Baptist (22-9) in the NCAA Division II Central Region Volleyball Tournament quarterfinal on Thursday night at Gangelhoff Center.
The Golden Bears improved to 18-0 in region quarterfinal matches and 79-10 overall in the NCAA Tournament play as they reached the region semifinals for the 20th consecutive season under head coach
Brady Starkey. CSP will face Central Missouri at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night with a spot in Saturday's region championship on the line.
Concordia served tough all night as they reached double figures in aces for the sixth time, setting a new season high with 11. And for the 10
th consecutive match, the Golden Bears hit .340 or better as they extended their winning streak to 11 with a .387 hitting percentage and 49 kills on 93 attempts on the night. Both offenses were effective in the contest as OBU's mark of .266 was the second highest against CSP on the season and highest since SCSU hit .284 all the way back on Sept. 12.
Katie Mattson continued her dominant late season run as she collected 13 kills on just 18 swings with only one error for a season-best .667 hitting percentage. It was her seventh consecutive match over .500 hitting as she moved to .351 overall.
Teagan Starkey spread the ball evenly to the rest of the offense as
Emma Schmidt,
Jasmine Mulvihill and
Sophia Andersen each delivered nine kills while
Jamie Guptill had eight. Starkey tallied 47 assists and six digs on the night while Schmidt led the way with 12 digs in the win. Mulvihill matched
Ellie Sieling for the team lead with three aces in the match.
D'Erricka Frierson led the Bison with eight kills while Jenna West picked up a team-best seven digs in the loss.
After falling behind 4-1 to open the match, the Golden Bears quickly turned the tide with seven points in a row and 12 of 13 to build a 13-5 advantage. The lead grew to double figures following another 4-0 run to make it 18-8 before closing out the set with a 25-16 win.
Concordia led from start to finish in the second set as they scored the first three points before using an 8-2 run midway through the set to push the lead to eight at 15-7. Oklahoma Baptist managed to cut the lead in half at 18-14 before a 5-1 run in their favor further closed the gap to three at 22-19, but that would be all the closer they would get as CSP took the set 25-20.
OBU jumped out to an early lead in set three as they scored five of the first seven before pushing their lead to six at 11-5, but the Golden Bears showed their resilience as they battled back on multiple occasions. The Golden Bears erased that deficit with a 7-1 burst to even it up at 12-12 before a 7-2 Bison run had the visitors back in front at 19-14. That lead would not last, however, as Concordia caught fire with a massive 11-1 run, including the final eight points to win the set 25-20 and the match 3-0.
