Mankato, Minn. –  The Minnesota State volleyball team will travel to #3 Concordia-St. Paul on Tuesday as it will take part in the first round of the NSIC/ US Bank Volleyball Tournament.

Scouting the Golden Bears: #3 Concordia-St. Paul comes into the week owning a 25-4 overall record and an 18-2 NSIC record, which was good enough for them to finish seond in the conference. The Golden Bears are coached by Brady Starkey, who is in his 12th season at the helm.
 
As a team CSP ranks first in the conference in hitting percentage and opponent blocks, while they place second in the conference in opponnet hitting percentage, assists, kills and blocks.

Individually speaking the Golden Bears are led this this year by a trio of 2014 First Team All-NSIC Team members in junior outside hitter Anna Schlaak and a pair of spohomores in Riley Hanson and Emma Lange. Schlaak leads the team in kills with 388 (3.77 per set), to along with her 300 digs (2.91 per set). Hanson ranks second on the team with 335 kills (3.25 per set), with a quite impressive attack percentage in .400, which ranks her first in the conference hitting percentage wise. Rounding out the trio is Lange, as the middle blocker has racked up 250 kills (2.43 per set), 101 total blocks,  59 digs and 54 assists. Junior middle blocker Heather Schiller also leads the conference in total blocks with 126 (1.22 per set) .

Earlier this Year: The Mavericks and Golden Bears have faced each two times in the regular season this season. In both occurences, the home team won the match. MSU won the first match 3-1 on Sept. 16, with CSP winning the second match 3-0 on Oct. 28.  

A Tale of Two Games: In the match that the Mavericks won, they posted a .289 hitting percentage, 58 assists, 12 service aces and 47 digs. Where as the match MSU lost, the team recorded a .168 hitting percentage, 40 assists, one service ace and 41 digs.
  
From Last Week: The Minnesota State volleyball team went 0-2 last week as they fell to Northern State on Friday before the Mavericks fell to MSU Moorhead on Saturday.

All Conference Honors: Four Mavericks were named to the 2014 All-NSIC Conference teams with Krista Hassing earning First Team All-NSIC honors, as Ellie Van De Steeg, Chandra Honebrink and Haley Fogarty receieved Second Team All-NSIC honors.

How We Stack Up: Coming into the week, the Mavericks rank fifth in the NSIC with 1,291 assists (13.17 per set) and third in opponents asissts  with 1,058 (10.80 per set). MSU currently sits in sixth place with 1,357 kills (13.85 per set) and sits second on the opponent kills list with 1,110 kills (11.33 per set). MSU ranks fourth in the conference in opponents blocks per set with 1.63. The Purple and Gold rank fourth in the NSIC in service aces per set with 1.48 per set.

Killin' It: Senior outside hitter Chandra Honebrink comes into the week sitting in the top-10 of the conference in kills per set. The Waconia, Minn. native sits tenth in the NSIC as she is averaging 3.55 kills a set.

Assisting the Way: Ellie Van De Steeg comes into the week ranked fourth in the NSIC with an average of 11.72 assists per set, giving her a total 1,149 assists on the year.

Ace in Your Face: Senior defensive specialist Haley Doran comes into the week ranked third in the NSIC in service aces per set with 0.36 giving her 35 on the year.

Diggin it?: Sophomore libero Haley Fogarty finds herself in the top ten of the conference in digs per set as the Belle Plaine, Minn. native is averaging 4.29 a set. Fogarty has racked up 432 digs on the year.

To view the complete release in PDF form, click HERE

To view the NSIC Tournament page, click HERE