ST. PAUL, Minn. – The top-seeded No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (26-5) fell to third-seeded No. 11 St. Cloud State (26-6) in three sets in the NSIC Tournament Championship on Saturday evening at the Gangelhoff Center.

The Golden Bears, ranked fourth in the latest NCAA regional rankings, will now await the unveiling of the NCAA Central Region Tournament bracket on the NCAA Selection Show streamed live on NCAA.com on Monday at 6:30 p.m.

As a team, Concordia hit .192 with 41 kills and 16 errors on 130 attacks, while St. Cloud State hit .278 with 53 kills and 16 errors on 133 swings. The Golden Bears held a narrow edge in blocks (9-8), but SCSU led in aces (4-1), assists (49-39), and digs (62-57).

The Golden Bears led for much of the opening set and held a 21-18 advantage late in the frame, but the Huskies claimed three straight points to tie it up at 21 each. It took extra points to decide a winner with Concordia holding three set point opportunities and St. Cloud having two, but back-to-back kills from SCSU's Shelby Kimm ultimately gave the Huskies a 29-27 win.

The Huskies held a comfortable 23-17 lead late in the second set, but Concordia put together a 5-1 run to pull within two points at 24-22. Kimm came through again for the Huskies, however, recording the final kill once again to put St. Cloud State up 2-0.

Set three looked competitive early on with the teams locked in a 7-7 tie, but a 14-2 run followed for the Huskies to give them a commanding 21-9 lead that would hold the rest of the way with SCSU eventually claiming a 25-15 win to close it out.

Junior Mehlayna Straub led the charge for CSP's offense, logging a team-high 11 kills on .500 hitting and adding a dig and a block assist. Makenna Nold also finished in double figures with 11 kills, five digs, and four block assists. Both Nold and Straub were named to the all-tournament team at the conclusion of the match.

Senior Cassie Sieling was strong in the back row for the Bears, leading all players in the match with 18 digs. Ellie Sieling also finished in double figures on defense with 15 digs while adding four kills and a block assist.

Middle blocker Kelsey Cooper led all players in the match with five block assists, while setter Audrey Waterman added three blocks, five digs, and 17 assists. Reagan Hickey contributed 18 assists and four digs.

For SCSU, Kimm led all players in the match with 17 kills and 13 digs, while Ella Thompson and Sam Zimmerman added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Setter Braya LaPlant paced the Husky offense with 45 assists and 10 digs.

Concordia now holds all-time records of 34-10 in the NSIC Tournament and 7-6 in the NSIC Championship match. The loss snapped a 15-match winning streak for the Golden Bears.