Jim Souhan: Dominant D-II volleyball is an easy sell

At the end of their 52nd consecutive victory Tuesday night, the Concordia (St. Paul) volleyball team lined up for the traditional under-the-net handshake with Southwest Minnesota State. CU coach Brady Starkey joined the line wearing cargo shorts and holding the hand of his barefoot daughter.

At Division II Concordia, dominance is not formal; it's more of a formality.

With an all-Minnesota roster, Concordia, ranked first in the nation, this season set the NCAA Division II record for consecutive victories. The Golden Bears are 15-0, including 4-0 in the tough Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

CU hasn't lost a conference game since Sept. 22, 2007, has won the past two national titles, and has won a conference title in each of Starkey's six full seasons. Starkey won national coach of the year honors in 2007.

This being Division II, all of this success plays out in the relaxed atmosphere of the Gangelhoff Center just south of Interstate 94, a success story all but hidden in the sports-saturated Twin Cities.

When Starkey brings recruits to campus, he knows the games themselves will do the selling. "I think they come in thinking, 'Ok, this is cool, I hear you guys are good,'" Starkey said. "Then once they watch the games and realize just how good, then they really are sold.

"We had a kid on campus today, and it was the same thing. She was just looking around, and then by the end of the night she's saying, 'OK, I guess you guys are really that good; this is really cool, and kind of fun, and a great atmosphere. The biggest challenge is getting them on campus."

Starkey jokes that his selling point to schools is: "We're warmer than the schools up north."

One advantage of recruiting almost exclusively in Minnesota is that the Twin Cities are a selling point, not a detriment. He's not exactly recruiting kids off the beach in San Diego.

"I was actually looking at Duluth first, and I thought I would wind up going there," senior libero Mary Slinger said. "It wound up not working out, and the coaches here were calling me, and I thought about it and thought, 'Yeah, the Cities, that will be cool.' And it has been.

"We're just a bunch of Midwest girls running around, having fun, and being pretty successful."

That's an understatement. The Golden Bears have lost two games in 15 matches this season despite playing six ranked opponents.

"That means something to me -- we're not just playing creampuff teams; we're playing the best teams in the country," Starkey said. "It's pretty cool."

Slinger, setter Maggie McNamara, middle hitter Emily Palkert, outside hitter Megan Carlson and rightside hitter Sadie Kessler are among the team's standouts. "My sister came to Concordia, and I sat in those stands and watched this team and was like, 'I want to be down there playing,'" McNamara said. "It just seemed like such a fun atmosphere. I didn't look anywhere else.

"I think we're all the little girls who weren't big enough to go into a D-I program, and we wanted to play in a good program, in a good community, and have fun."

Starkey emphasizes strong defense and McNamara's "fast-setting," which gives his hitters the advantage of a lot of 1-on-1 matchups.

Starkey was a Concordia assistant under Geoff Carlston, now the head coach at Ohio State. When they arrived at the school, the volleyball program was in disrepair, so Starkey and Carlston drove to the national tournament at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D.

"We were like, 'All right, we already have the kind of athletes we need in Minnesota,'" Starkey said. "We took second in the nation the next year."

Their streak is a uniquely Minnesotan story playing out in the middle of the Twin Cities, a story of informal excellence. "It's really a credit to our coaches," Slinger said. "They're ridiculous -- in a phenomenal way."

Jim Souhan can be heard at 10-noon Sunday, and 6:40 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday on AM-1500. His twitter name is SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com