GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The University of North Dakota volleyball team opens its longest home stand of the season on Friday against New Jersey Institute of Technology. The match with the Highlanders is the first of three straight Great West Conference matches at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. It also serves as UND's annual 'Dig Pink' contest and will start at 7 p.m. The Sioux will be in action on Sunday as well against Chicago State at 2 p.m.
MEDIA COVERAGE: This weekend's volleyball matches against New Jersey Institute of Technology and Chicago State will have both live stats and audio broadcasts available at www.fightingsioux.com.
DIG PINK: Friday's match against NJIT will be the annual 'Dig Pink' match at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Fans are encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer education and awareness. The first 500 fans will receive a free give-away and pink t-shirts will also be available for a monetary donation. All proceeds go to the Side-Out Foundation, which is a non-profit organization started by a group of volleyball enthusiasts to help support the fight against breast cancer. The group's goal is to raise $1,000,000 during 2009 to aid in this effort. The Fighting Sioux will be wearing pink socks and wristbands during the match and pink t-shirts during warm-ups.
WELCOME TO GRAND FORKS: Both NJIT and Chicago State will be making their first treks to Grand Forks this weekend as the matches will be the first between the respective schools in both cases. Likewise, UND will making its first trek to Chicago and Newark to play the Cougars (Nov. 5) and the Highlanders (Nov. 7) on their respective home courts later this season.
SIZING UP NJIT: Under the direction of interim head coach J.R. Martins, the Highlanders sit a top the Great West standings with a 4-0 mark in league play and 14-5 ledger overall. NJIT is a perfect 5-0 at home and 9-5 (4-2 in actual road games) away from Newark. The team leads the country in digs per set with an average of 20.54. Senior Sabrina Baby is leading that effort as her average of 6.51 digs per set is also tops among DI players.
The Highlanders opened the season with eight straight wins and now bring a five-match win streak into the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. One of those five wins was a five-set victory over Utah Valley - a team that was the preseason favorite in the Great West Coaches' poll and also dealt UND its only setback in league play.
Sophomore Renata Pandolfo, who led the team in kills as a freshman with 343 a season ago, is the top attacker for NJIT with 225 kills. Junior Baaba Hughes ranks second with 179 kills. Eleven of their 14 victories this season have come via the sweep and the match with the Sioux starts a stretch of eight straight matches in league play for NJIT.
SIZING UP CHICAGO STATE: The Cougars are winless on the season after 19 matches, including seven setbacks in Great West Conference play. Head coach Shakelia Castile-Jones is in her first full season guiding the Cougars after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater.
Mazvita Maziveyi has been the most consistent Cougar as she ranks second in kills (81) and total blocks (22), while leading the team with 24 service aces. Kimberly Naut is CSU's top attacker with 91 kills. The Cougars picked up their first set victory of the season on Sept. 26 at Texas-Pan American in Great West play.
VORTHERMS SURPASSES SUTTER IN SWEEP OF SOUTH DAKOTA: Senior Lindsay Vortherms etched her name a top the UND career digs list on Thursday during a Sioux sweep of South Dakota. With 20 digs against the Coyotes, Vortherms surpassed Mindy Sutter (1,594, 1985-88) for the top spot on the list. She now has 1,610 during her tenure with the Sioux and should add to that total with six regular-season matches remaining on the schedule.
STREAKY SIOUX: The Sioux are off to a 14-6 start under first-year head coach Ashley Hardee and the team has reached its win total with some streaky play. UND opened the campaign sweeping through the competition at the Best Western Sycamore Classic, reeling off four-straight wins to earn the tournament title. After dropping five of their next six matches, the Sioux began Great West Conference play by sweeping Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American at home. That sparked a season-long five match winning streak that came to end with the team's loss at Utah Valley (Oct. 1). The setback to the Wolverines was UND's only blemish in its last 10 matches thanks to their current four-match win streak, which began with a sweep of UTPA on Oct. 8.
BROOM, BROOM, BROOM: The Fighting Sioux bring a four-match win streak into play on Friday against New Jersey Institute of Technology. And for only the seventh time in school history, the Sioux have swept four opponents in a row. The 2008 squad holds the school record with five straight sweep victories set last season. That stretch began with a victory at Presentation College (Sept. 24) and ended after a sweep of Bryant (Oct. 11). The 1990 team led by Lisa Kissee swept four straight opponents twice during that campaign to finish 26-11 (5-4 NCC) play.
SWEEPING SUCCESS: The Fighting Sioux hold a 5-1 mark in Great West Conference play so far this season and all five of those victories have come via the sweep. UND has swept both Texas-Pan American and Houston Baptist twice and their latest victim was South Dakota on Oct. 17. The team set a school record a season ago by registering 16 sweeps in 24 victories.
TEXAS-TWO SWEEP PART TWO: UND swept both Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American to open its Great West era in resounding fashion on Sept. 17 and 19, respectively. A few weeks back, the Sioux traveled to the Lone Star State and repeated that performance on their opposition's home court, registering a sweep of UTPA on Oct. 8 and sweeping Houston Baptist on Oct. 10. Sophomore Devin Trefz had 19 kills in the two matches, while Britta Hanson and Annika Smed each added 13 to help record the sweeps. Senior Megan Langseth had 52 assists and classmate Lindsay Vortherms added 29 digs to lead the Sioux in those categories.
SEVENTH TO 2,000: Senior setter Megan Langseth earned a spot on the all-tournament team at the Best Western Sycamore Classic after leading the Sioux with 141 assists in the four-match event. With her total, she became just the seventh player in school history to surpass the 2,000-plateau in career assists. Through 20 matches this season, Langseth has 742 assists and has collected at least 30 helpers in 16 of those contests. She had a season-high 55 in the four-set victory over Montana State (Sept. 5). Langseth, who collected 1,134 assists during the 2008 campaign — a total that was the eighth highest in single-season history at UND — now has 2,671 for her career. With a strong finish to her senior season, she could become just the fourth Fighting Sioux player in school history to surpass the 3,000-assist mark.
ON THE RISE: Hanson has moved into third place on the UND career charts in block assists (343) and fourth in total blocks (408) with her stellar play in the middle this season. She leads the team with 10 solo blocks and a career-high 101 block assists. Those 101 block assists are tied for the sixth best effort in a single season by a Sioux player. Hanson also holds the ninth and 10th spots on that career list after registering 92 in 2008 and 91 in 2006, respectively. The senior also moved into the 1,000-kill club earlier this season becoming just the 12th player in UND history to achieve that feat. With 178 on the season, she cracked the top 10 list and is tied for ninth with Jody Paperno (1,085; 1992-95) for ninth place.
DOUBLE THREAT: It should come as little surprise that sophomore Annika Smed leads the team with five double-doubles through 20 matches. One of the more versatile players on the team, Smed is the only Sioux player to surpass the 200-platuae this season in kills (210) and digs (211). Those figures rank second on the team, respectively. She was the only Sioux player from a season ago to finish with at least 200 kills (258) and 300 digs (347) and is on pace to achieve that same feat in 2009.
TREFZ ON TOP: Sophomore Devin Trefz is off to a blistering start in the kills department through 20 matches. She leads the team with 259 successful attacks and her average of 3.65/set is nearly a kill higher than her average of 2.77/set (319 total) from her freshman season. Trefz has reached double figures in kills in 18 of 20 matches for the Sioux and has led the club in that category in 17 matches this season.
JOKI JIVE: Junior Erin Joki has twice set a career-high in attack percentage this season, both times registering eight kills on 12 and 13 swings, respectively. Against SIU-E (Aug. 28), she hit .667 and in the sweep of Bemidji State (Oct. 20), Joki hit .615. She ranks fourth on the team with 117 kills and has twice collected 10 kills in a match (Aug. 28 vs. UMKC and Sept. 23 at Gonzaga).
TIA TIME: Sophomore Tiara Russell has seen her playing time increase over the past four matches and she is making the most of her opportunity. In her first eight matches of the season, Russell registered eight kills and two blocks, but in the previous four she has collected 10 kills and seven block assists. Last Thursday against South Dakota (Oct. 17), Russell had a season-high six kills and two block assists in the sweep of the Coyotes.
BETTY BE NICE: With their sweep of Houston Baptist on Sept. 17, the Fighting Sioux have now won all six home-openers at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center and have won eight home-openers overall. Last season, UND posted a 7-1 record on their home court. Early in the season, the team reeled off 11 consecutive set victories before that streak was snapped on Nov. 8 against South Dakota. So far in 2009, the Sioux have an unblemished mark of 4-0 on their home court.
