By: Patrick Rydeen

WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The seventh-seeded #15-ranked Concordia-St. Paul volleyball team (24-8) defeated sixth-seeded #12 Nebraska-Kearney (26-7) in five sets (25-18, 25-20, 19-25, 19-25, 15-12) on Friday night at the 2021 NCAA Division II Central Region Volleyball Tournament semifinal played at the Multipurpose Building on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.
 
For the sixth season in a row and 17th time in the past 18 seasons under head coach Brady Starkey, the Golden Bears will play for a region title as they improved to 73-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. CSP has gone 11-6 in their 17 previous region championship matches. Concordia will face the winner of #1 Central Missouri and #5 Washburn tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
 
The Golden Bears are 9-0 all-time against UCM, including a 2-0 mark in NCAA Tournament play, while they are 4-2 all-time against WU, splitting the two previous NCAA Tournament matchups.
 
In a rematch of the 2019 NCAA Central Region Championship, the Golden Bears got their revenge as they outlasted the Lopers in five sets after seeing their 2-0 lead in the match disappear. CSP led from start to finish in the fifth set as they secured their spot in the region title match.
 
Senior Tori Hanson was a force in the back row as she cleared 30 digs for the second time this season, finishing with a match-best 32 to go along with five assists. Redshirt freshman Emma Schmidt joined her in double figures with 13 digs while Schmidt matched Sophia Andersen for the team lead with 15 kills. Schmidt's double-double was her ninth of the season and second in a row as she also chipped in two aces and two blocks while hitting .382.
 
Along with Schmidt and Andersen, Katie Mattson and Jasmine Mulvihill gave the Golden Bears in double figures in kills. Mattson hit .381 with 11 kills and a career-best seven blocks while Mulvihill finished with 10 kills, nine digs and four blocks. Both setters finished with 25 assists on the night as Ellie Veldman finished with 25 assists and five blocks while Teagan Starkey added 25 assists and three digs.
 
As a team, CSP collected a 61-57 edge in kills a 7-4 edge in service aces and a 13.0-12.0 edge in total blocks while out-hitting UNK .213-.154 in the win.
 
Emersen Cyza paced the Lopers with 21 kills while Maddie Squiers had 48 assists and 15 digs on the nights.

After the Lopers opened the match with two of the first three points, the Golden Bears took control with an 8-2 run to jump ahead 9-4. That would be a lead they would not relinquish as they maintained a lead of two or more for the duration of the set. UNK remained within a pair as late as 17-15 before a 7-1 run put it out of reach at 24-16. The Lopers survived a pair of set points before CSP sealed it at 25-18.
 
In set two, CSP used an early 4-0 run to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 lead. The Golden Bears added on with a 5-0 run a few points later to push it to 12-7. With UNK back within two at 14-12, Concordia strung together another burst of three straight points to push it to 17-12. The lead would not shrink below four the rest of the way as the Golden Bears took the second set 25-20.
 
Nebraska-Kearney came out firing in the third set as they grabbed the first four points in a row, but CSP quickly responded with six of seven to take a lead of their own. That lead proved to be short-lived, however, as the Lopers 14 of the next 19 points to build a 19-11 advantage. Trailing by nine at 23-14, Concordia stayed alive with a 5-1 run, but a CeCe Beahm kill gave UNK a 25-19 set win to force a fourth set.
 
The momentum carried over into the fourth set for the Lopers as they used a quick 5-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. An 8-1 run a few points later, highlighted by four UNK blocks, ballooned the lead to double figures at 16-6 as Nebraska-Kearney pulled away. The lead grew to as many as a dozen at 23-11 before the Golden Bears scratched their way back in it. Concordia scored the next seven points in a row to pull within five at 23-18, but the mountain was a little too tall to climb as the Lopers pushed the match to a decisive fifth set with a 25-19 set win.
 
Concordia got off to a dream start in the fifth set as they scored the first three points and five of the first six to build an early four-point edge. After two straight for the Lopers, CSP grabbed another 5-1 run to push it to six at 10-4. That lead shrunk to two as a 5-1 run the other way brought it to 11-9, but Concordia managed to hang on for the win. Schmidt sealed the victory with a kill after a long rally to bring to the final score of 15-12.