St. Paul, Minn. - The ninth-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (7-4, 2-1 NSIC) played its first home match of the 2024 season on Friday evening, taking down Winona State (8-6, 1-2 NSIC) in four sets at the Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears claimed a 25-18 victory in the opening set, but the Warriors managed a 25-23 win in set two to even the match. Concordia took control from that point on, winning sets three and four 25-19 and 25-12, respectively, to win the match in four sets.

CSP claimed the first five points of the opening set, but the Warriors worked their way back and eventually took a 9-8 lead. The Golden Bears claimed seven of the following 10 points and never looked back, cruising to a 25-18 win. Libero Cassie Sieling reached double figures early, tallying 11 digs in the first frame alone. As a team, CSP hit .316 in the first set.

After Concordia took an 11-3 advantage early in set two, the Warriors chipped away throughout the remainder of the set, eventually securing a 25-23 win to even the match at 1-1.

Tied 8-8 in the third set, the Golden Bears won eight of the following nine points and held the lead for the remainder of the set, winning 25-19 to take a 2-1 edge in the match. As a unit, CSP outhit the Warriors .270 to .122 in the set.

Concordia never trailed in set four, cruising to a dominant 25-12 win to slam the door with a 3-1 match victory. The Golden Bears were extremely efficient in the set, hitting .471 with 16 kills as a team.

For the match, CSP hit .319 with 59 kills while WSU hit just .173 with 50 kills. The Golden Bears also held an 81-69 edge in digs and a 57-47 edge in set assists.

Mehlayna Straub had the strongest night of her career, tallying a career-high 18 kills on a .389 hitting percentage. The sophomore also added two service aces and three digs.

Makenna Nold also reached double figures in kills, finishing with 12 on a .458 hitting percentage.

Cassie Sieling had a career night for the Golden Bear defense, finishing with a career-high 24 digs.

Ellie Sieling notched a 21-dig, 10-kill double-double for CSP, her fifth of the season, and setter Teagan Starkey tallied 51 set assists and 10 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.

Middle blocker Claudia Stahlke added a team-high seven total blocks to go along with nine kills on a .421 hitting percentage.

The win marked Concordia's fourth straight in the series, with the Bears now holding a 37-5 record against Winona State all time.  

CSP will be back in action tomorrow evening, hosting Minnesota Crookston at 5 p.m. on Homecoming Saturday.