ST. PAUL, Minn. - The #4 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (23-2, 14-2 NSIC) wraps up the regular season on the road as they travel to Sioux Falls (12-13, 8-8 NSIC) on Friday and #6 Southwest Minnesota State (22-4, 13-3 NSIC) on Saturday.

SIOUX FALLS SERIES HISTORY
On Friday, the meeting between the Golden Bears and Cougars marks the 21st all-time meeting between the two schools with CSP holding a 14-6 record in the 20 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 seven meetings. CSP and USF have met seven times in Sioux Falls with the Golden Bears going 5-2 in those meetings.

LAST MEETING VS USF
Back on Oct. 3 in St. Paul, CSP picked up a four-set win over the Cougars at Gangelhoff Center.

Emma Schmidt led the Golden Bears with her third consecutive and seventh double-double of the season. The Maple Grove native finished with 14 kills, 19 digs and a pair of block assists on the evening. Jasmine Mulvihill added her seventh double-double of the season as well with 10 kills and 12 digs, while Sophia Andersen finished with a match leading 20 kills and Katie Mattson added 13 of her own. Teagan Starkey finished with 37 assists in the victory,

SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA STATE SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Bears and Mustangs head into the matchup with an extensive history as Concordia has met SMSU more times than any other program on the volleyball court. In the previous 70 meetings, CSP holds an edge of 42-27-1 over Southwest Minnesota State with a 29-10 advantage in NSIC play. In 24 meetings in Marshall, CSP has compiled a record of 14-10.

LAST MEETING VS SMSU
In the first meeting of the season on Oct. 12, the Golden Bears grabbed a four-set win over SMSU at Gangelhoff Center.

CSP finished the night with a 10-2 advantage in service aces while holding slim edges in nearly every other area. Emma Schmidt, Payton Stier, Ellie Sieling and Cassie Sieling each contributed multiple aces as Schmidt and Stier had three apiece and the Sielings had two apiece. Schmidt added 14 kills and 17 digs while Ellie Sieling led all players with 20 digs in the win.

Offensively, Teagan Starkey dished out 57 assists to go along with 13 digs for her third double-double of the season while four hitters registered a dozen or more kills. Jasmine Mulvihill led the way with 18 kills as she added 15 digs and hit .432 on the night. Katie Mattson was even more efficient with 12 kills on 19 swings for a .474 hitting percentage while Sophia Andersen tallied 13 kills, four digs and three blocks.

LAST TIME OUT
Last weekend, CSP closed out an undefeated regular season home slate with sweeps of NSU and MSUM to move to 10-0 on their home court.

On Friday, it was a dominant offensive effort for the home squad as CSP tallied 47 kills and just six errors on 86 attempts to finish with an efficient .477 hitting percentage. Three different Golden Bears reached double figures in kills in the win as Jasmine Mulvihill led the way with 12 kills while Sophia Andersen and Emma Schmidt had 10 apiece. Mulvihill hit .474 while adding seven digs and a pair of blocks on the night. Andersen and Schmidt finished with nearly identical lines as Andersen went 10-0-20 with five digs, two aces and a .500 hitting percentage while Schmidt went 10-0-21 with seven digs, two aces and a .476 hitting percentage.

On Saturday, CSP extended their streak to four straight matches over .425 hitting as they collected a staggering 58 kills (19.33 per set) over three sets of action. It matched their third highest kill total in three sets in the 25-point scoring format as they put up their largest total since tallying 60 at MSUM on Sept. 29, 2018. Teagan Starkey's 51 assists (17.00 per set) fell just one shy of the three-set record in the 25-point format, trailing only Elizabeth Mohr's 52 assists in the 2018 road victory at MSUM.

Teagan Starkey earned her sixth NSIC Setter of the Week selection as she averaged 12.60 assists per set while guiding the offense to .489 hitting percentage in the two wins.

POSTSEASON PICTURE
Moving into the final weekend of the regular season, there is still a lot to be determined in the seeding of the NSIC Volleyball Tournament. The Golden Bears currently hold the second spot and are guaranteed a top-four finish as they have secured a first round home matchup. CSP, who hold a 14-2 record in league play, could finish anywhere from second to fourth as SMSU sits in third at 13-3 and SCSU sits in fourth at 12-4. With five teams all within a game and a half and another just a game ahead of that between fifth and 10th, Concordia's first round opponent could be any of WSU, NSU, UMD, MSU, USF and Augie. After next Tuesday's first round contest, the four schools advancing to the semifinals will converge at the top remaining seed over the weekend.

IN THE POLLS
After going 2-0 over the weekend, CSP held their place at #4 in the AVCA Coaches Poll for the third 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.

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

Teagan Starkey's 13.33 assists per set rank first in the country as she has guided the offense to a nation-leading 15.49 kills per set and a second-best .315 hitting percentage through 25 matches. The Golden Bears also have two of the top seven in kills per set in the NSIC as Sophia Andersen ranks third (3.67) and Jasmine Mulvihill ranks seventh (3.57). Mulvihill and Andersen also rank fifth (4.13) and eighth (3.98), respectively, in points per set while Mulvihill and Andersen also rank ninth (.332) and 10th (.320) in hitting percentage, respectively.

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 10th with 0.40 aces per set and Emma Schmidt ranks 13th with 3.53 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 1,765 career kills rank second in program history as she is 133 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 4.55 points per set are 0.12 ahead of Kalvik. The senior also needs just 17 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 982 career digs put her 18 shy of the mark. She also sits 105 kills away from the 1,000 kill club with 895 while junior Sophia Andersen has compiled 903 kills.