Wayne, Neb.- The UMD volleyball team will meet fellow NSIC-foe Concordia St. Paul in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. The match is set to begin at 5 p.m.

A LOOK BACK AT THE BULLDOGS' PATH
On Friday, UMD defeated MIAA Conference Tournament winner Washburn in four sets to live to fight again. The Bulldog offense was nothing short of stellar on the path to victory, especially during a breakout third set that secured momentum for UMD the rest of the way. Four Bulldogs had nine or more kills on hitting percentages well above .300. As a team, UMD hit .304.

CONCORDIA'S ROUTE TO ROUND TWO
Concordia's victory against Nebraska-Kearney on Friday was the epitome of "survive and advance." The Golden Bears did take the first set, but they dropped the next two to the Lopers to find themselves in a 2-1 hole in the match. Worse yet for Concordia, they started the fourth frame in a 16-9 rut. Despite the odds, the Golden Bears rallied back to not only win the fourth set but snag the fifth to take the match 3-2. Though they had been the ones on the brink of elimination, Concordia did walk away from the matchup having led the Lopers in about every major statistical category. The Golden Bears had five players hit double-digit kills, headlined by Emma Schmidt's 16. Katie Mattson had a whopping nine block assists to go with a solo block. 

BULLDOGS VS BEARS 2022: A RETROSPECTIVE (SO FAR)
These two squads are no strangers to one another.

Back in October, the Bulldogs made the trek to St. Paul to be part of an instant classic with the Golden Bears. The five-set slugfest saw UMD take both a 1-0 and 2-1 advantage, but Concordia kept answering the bell. After dropping a tightly-contested fourth set 25-22, the Bulldogs lost some steam in the fifth and eventually dropped the contest. Oh well- until they meet again.

Which would be in November as part of the NSIC tournament. Once more, UMD found itself in St. Paul. What resulted was a match that a box score alone doesn't do justice. The Golden Bears took care of business 3-0, but the Bulldogs made every single one of those sets interesting, scoring 21 points or more in each go-around. 

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
This season's matchups account for so little of the totality of the history between these two clubs. This won't even be the first time the Bulldogs will have met the Golden Bears in the NCAA Tournament- far from it. 

Since 2004, UMD has played Concordia at some point in tournament time nine total times. This includes a stretch from 2004 to 2008 in which the two squads ran into each other every season for five consecutive years. That half-decade ultimately went to the Golden Bears, who would win three matches in that stretch compared to the Bulldogs' two. Those 2007 and 2008 seasons were the first of what would be seven consecutive seasons where Concordia would end up with NCAA Tournament gold. Unfortunately for UMD, that means that if they met the Golden Bears in this stretch, it didn't go well for them. That happened three times from 2011-2013. The first time the Bulldogs encountered Concordia after that NCAA reign had seemingly cooled down in 2017, the Golden Bears still prevailed in four sets. This means that Concordia has won their last six tournament contests against UMD. 

Saturday will be an exercise in reversing that trend. 

BITS FROM BOOS
Considering UMD head coach Jim Boos has been with the program since 2002, he's seen a lot of Concordia. Not just when they're playing his Bulldogs, either. For example, as any coach worth their weight in salt would do, Boos scouted the Concordia vs Nebraska-Kearney matchup last night. Since the Golden Bears eventually prevailed, they immediately became the story for Boos. Important to get confirmation, maybe, but what he saw was old news to him. 

"(I) saw a very talented team that knows how to win high stakes matches this time of year- yesterday was no exception," Boos said. "They certainly looked to have their backs against the ropes there, down 2-1 and down 16-9 in the fourth, and yet from there, they go on a 9-1 run and jump ahead and find a way to get it done in five. To the shock of no one- that's what they are and what they have been, so it's certainly a formidable opponent."

It's a scenario that Boos himself was on the other end of the court for against the Golden Bears just a month ago. Then there was the last meeting between the two, of course, another one in which Concordia prevailed. 

Since the beginning of the year, Boos has preached that there exist no magic formulas to success. Still, it's hard not to search for a specific tactile decision the Bulldogs could make to change their fortunes against Concordia this time around. Boos' actual answer to the problem is quite easy to say out loud, but it's never a gimme to employ. 

"I think ultimately, it just boils down to you have to play well…" Boos said. "The last time that we played them, we played them extremely well for a lot of the match but gave up a big run at the beginning of the first set and later in the second set, and those kinds of things aren't things you can do in matches with those kinds of stakes on the line. They're typically not going to give up those types of runs very often for you to get back into it. It's really about the same formula you always have, which is trying to be terminal but limiting errors to the best of your ability. We can't be in the net and serving balls into the net repetitively and think we can stay with a team as talented as they are."

Remember, though- this Bulldog squad is pretty talented, too. Now, it's a group that's coming into its own as a tournament team. With that comes the understanding that no match will be an easy one- not that any contest in a regular NSIC offering is a jog. Concordia is Concordia, yes, but the branding isn't what's important- it's the fact that they're a good enough team to be in the second round of the tournament of the elites. Hey... so is UMD. 

"I think they're excited," Boos said. "This is something we haven't been a part of for a few years with COVID last year, so I think it's just nice to be in this environment again. I think they're learning by being here what it's like to be at this level and the different stakes that are involved. We knew if we were able to advance, we were going to play a really good team in the semifinals- that's the nature of the central region. I don't think there's a lot of nerves or anxiety with the fact that we're playing Concordia again. I think it just boils down to the fact that we know we're going to be playing a good team. We're going to have to play our best, and you hope good things happen. You go out there, play fearless, and see what you got."

Catch the match live and free-of-charge here:  http://bit.ly/3GqmExr