Maria Steinhagen had 26 kills to lead Concordia (St. Paul) to a 30-26, 23-30, 30-19, 31-29 victory over Western Washington in the final of the NCAA Division II volleyball championships Saturday in Topeka, Kan.

The national championship is the first for the Golden Bears (36-4), who were making their third trip to the Division II Elite Eight in the past five years.

Steinhagen, a junior from Alexandria, Minn., was a third-team All-America this season.

Kate Bennett had 18 kills and Emily Palkert, the Division II Freshman of the Year, added 15 kills for the Golden Bears. Mary Slinger had 35 digs, Whitney Meierotto had 10 kills and 25 digs, and Maggie McNamara, a first-team All-America, added 17 digs and 71 set assists.

"If you like volleyball, or if you have never seen a match, you could really appreciate tonight's match," Concordia coach Brady Starkey said. "Hats off to Western Washington. They ... gave us fits all night."

Emily Castro had 19 kills for Western Washington (26-5).

Men's swimming The No. 10 Minnesota men's swimming and diving team won six of the eight events Saturday at the second day of the Ohio State Invitational at McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion in Columbus, Ohio. The Gophers lead the 12-team field with 802 points, followed by Ohio State (721.5), Denver (323), Notre Dame (262) and Michigan State (198.5). Russ Payne, Tyler Schmidt, Jon Roberts and David Plummer won individual events for Minnesota.

Women's swimming Jillian Tyler broke a 10-year-old 100 breaststroke school record, which was held by NCAA champion and former Gopher Gretchen Hegener, at the OSU Invitational. Tyler's school record time of 59.82 automatically qualified her for the NCAA Championships in March.