DULUTH, Minn. – The No. 6 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-4, 19-1 NSIC) clinched a share of its 15^th Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference title with a 3-2 win over Minnesota Duluth (18-9, 11-9 NSIC) at Romano Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The regular season conference crown is the 15^th overall for Concordia and the first since 2017. The Golden Bears earned the top seed in the NSIC Tournament over co-champion Wayne State via the conference's tie-breaking procedures. Concordia will host eighth-seeded Minnesota Duluth for the second consecutive match in the NSIC Tournament quarterfinals on Tuesday, November 18 at 6 p.m. at the Gangelhoff Center. 

The Golden Bears battled through a tight, momentum-shifting match that featured 22 ties and 12 lead changes across the five sets. CSP finished with 71 kills on .304 hitting while limiting the Bulldogs to .244 hitting with 62 kills on the day. Concordia also held advantages in assists (66–54), digs (79–66), blocks (7–6), and aces (10–8).

Senior defensive specialist Natalee Rolbiecki reached a massive career milestone in the match, leading all players with 22 digs to push her over 1,000 for her career. The senior has logged 439 digs in two seasons at CSP after transferring from Southwest Minnesota State, where she had 575 digs in the first two years of her career, putting her at a total of 1,014. Libero Cassie Sieling was also strong in the back row for CSP, finishing with 16 digs and six assists.

Sophomore Makenna Nold led the Golden Bears with 18 kills, also adding nine digs, two aces, and a block for 21 points. Senior Ellie Sieling delivered another impactful performance with 15 kills, 12 digs, two blocks, and an ace, while freshman Kaelyn Snoozy was highly efficient with 15 kills on .423 hitting. Junior Mehlayna Straub added 11 kills on .391 hitting, while sophomore Kelsey Cooper turned in a massive performance with 12 kills, five digs, and three aces while hitting at a .647 clip.

CSP's two setters put together another outstanding performance to pace the offense, with Reagan Hickey dishing out 31 assists and eight digs, while Audrey Waterman added 24 assists and two digs.

In the opening set, UMD used a 5-0 surge to take a 19-13 lead that proved to be too much for CSP to overcome as the Bulldogs went on to claim a 25-20 win.

The Golden Bears found themselves trailing once again by a score of 11-8 early in the second set, but a 10-2 run for Concordia followed to put them on top at 18-13. The Bulldogs responded with several small scoring runs of their own to pull within a single point on three separate occasions, but Concordia fended off each attempt to eventually take the set 25-22.

A late scoring run was the story once again in set three as an 8-2 burst by the Bears gave Concordia a comfortable cushion at 22-15 that would hold the rest of the way en route to a 25-18 win. The Golden Bears looked poised to close out the match with a 21-19 lead late in set four, but the Bulldogs had other ideas as they claimed six of the next eight points to win the frame 25-23 and send the match to a decisive fifth set.

In the final set, Concordia clung to an 11-10 lead following a UMD kill and a CSP attack error. The Golden Bears rattled off three straight points from there to take it to match point at 14-10. The Bulldogs won the following two points to pull within two at 14-12, but a kill from Cooper sealed the win for the Bears to give them their first conference title in seven seasons.

Minnesota Duluth was led by Paige Decker, who finished with 21 kills on .500 hitting, along with 19 kills from Kylie Broten and 10 from Xada Johnson. Libero Madison Reed collected a team-high 16 digs.

The victory made it 11 straight wins for CSP against Minnesota Duluth, with the Golden Bears now holding a 37-30 advantage in the all-time series. Concordia will enter Tuesday's conference tournament contest riding a 13-match winning streak.