SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The second-seeded No. 6 Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (30-5) punched its ticket to the national semifinals with a four-set win over seventh-seeded Gannon (Pa.) (27-8) in the NCAA Division II Volleyball Tournament Quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon on Thursday afternoon.

The Golden Bears move on to face third-seeded Point Loma (Calif.) (28-4) in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. with a spot in the national title match on the line. It will mark the first-ever meeting between the two teams.

With the win, Concordia improves to 12-1 all-time in the national quarterfinals, with an incredible 85-12 mark in all NCAA Tournament matches. Concordia last advanced to the national semifinals in 2022, later going on to play in the program's 11^th national championship match. The Golden Bears hold a perfect record of 11-0 in prior national semifinal matches.

For the match, the Golden Bears posted a .342 hitting percentage with 69 kills and 16 errors on 155 attempts while Gannon finished with a .092 percentage with 35 kills and 22 errors on 142 swings. Concordia also led in assists (64-33) and digs (79-60) while Gannon had the edge in aces (5-4) and blocks (5-3).

Sophomore Makenna Nold led the way for the Golden Bears once again, logging her third straight match with 20 or more kills, finishing with 20 on a .390 hitting percentage to go along with five digs and a block.

Sophomore Kelsey Cooper had a career day, finishing with a career-high 14 kills on .393 hitting while adding three digs and a block assist. Mehlayna Straub and Kaelyn Snoozy also each finished in double figures on offense, tallying 12 and 11, respectively.

Senior Ellie Sieling set a new career mark for a four-set match with 28 digs to lead the defensive effort for Concordia, also adding nine kills, four assists, and ace, and a block. Fellow senior Natalee Rolbiecki contributed 19 digs for CSP while libero Cassie Sieling added 17.

Sophomore Reagan Hickey steadied the Concordia offense, tallying 30 assists in the match. Redshirt freshman Audrey Waterman was just behind her with 27 assists to go along with four digs, three kills, and a pair of block assists.

The Golden Bears quickly fell behind 3-0 in the opening frame, but followed up with a 9-0 run, including three kills from Cooper and two each from Nold and Ellie Sieling, to take a 9-3 lead. Concordia dominated the rest of the frame, outscoring the Golden Knights 16-7 to take the set 25-10. CSP hit at an incredible .515 clip with 19 kills in the set, while limiting Gannon to .000 hitting with just five kills.

Gannon once again jumped out to an early lead in the second frame, maintaining a narrow advantage for the majority of the set. The Golden Bears rallied from a four-point deficit late in the set to tie it at 24 each, with three additional ties following before Gannon won two in a row to take the set 29-27 and even the match.

Concordia controlled the opening portion of set three, working out to a 14-6 lead that they would never relinquish. CSP went on to lead by as many as 12 on the way to the 25-15 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Set four played out in a similar fashion to its predecessor, with Concordia taking an early lead and using a seven-point run on the serve of senior Cassie Sieling to quickly push the advantage to double digits. The Golden Bears never looked back from that point, cruising to a 25-12 win to take the match in four sets.  

The Golden Knights were led by Abbey Williams with nine kills and 10 digs. Libero Alexis Fowler finished with 21 digs to lead the Gannon defense.