GRAND FORKS, N.D. - The stage is set for quite a showdown on Saturday as the Great West Conference's top two teams will meet at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center with the winner take over sole posession of first place in the league volleyball standings. UND and visiting Utah Valley both own 7-1 league marks and will collide at 12 p.m. on Halloween to see which team takes control of its own desitiny in securing the inagural Great West regular season championship.
MEDIA COVERAGE: This weekend's volleyball match with Utah Valley will have both live stats and an audio broadcast available at www.fightingsioux.com.
WELCOME TO GRAND FORKS: This will mark the first visit by Utah Valley to Grand Forks for a volleyball match and the contest could not have any more significance. The winner takes over sole possession of first place in the Great West Conference. Both teams are 7-1 in league play. The Sioux made their initial trek to Orem, Utah at the beginning of October, dropping a four-set, tightly contested match to the Wolverines (25-17, 22-25, 25-21, 26-24). UND is a perfect 6-0 on its home court this season and has only dropped one set. Senior Cami Manwill led UVU with 19 kills, while the Sioux held the league's top attacker, Kayli Broadbent, to seven kills. Sophomore Devin Trefz had a team-high 10 kills for UND, while senior middle blocker Britta Hanson had 11 block assists as the Sioux outblocked the Wolverines 16.5 to 7.5.
Both teams in this showdown for first place are the top two attacking squads in the league. UVU brings a .243 hitting percentage into the contest, while the Sioux rank second with a .205 tally. In the same regard, UND is the top defensive team in terms of hitting percentage allowed, holding opponents to a .118 clip. UVU ranks fourth in that department (.176).
SIZING UP UTAH VALLEY: The Wolverines were the preseason favorites to win the inaugural Great West volleyball championship and so far the team from Orem, Utah has lived up to that billing. UVU has dropped only one Great West Conference match this season, falling in five sets on the road at New Jersey Institute of Technology on Oct. 10. Head coach Sam Atoa is in his 11th season directing the Wolverines' program and his club has posted a 91-74 record since moving up to the Division I ranks six seasons ago. Like the Sioux, UVU is playing in a conference for the first time since making that leap to DI. Atoa and the Wolverines won the 2007 Independent Championship, finishing with a school record 21 wins.
Atoa's top player is junior Kayli Broadbent, who leads the Great West with 358 kills and an average of 4.3/set. Senior Cami Manwill helps form one of top attacking duo's in the league as she has added 270 kills and ranks second on the team with 248 digs. Earlier this season, Manwill became UVU's all-time leader in career kills. Defensively, senior libero Allyce Jones paces the team with 438 digs. The senior was named the 2007 NCAA Independent Defensive Player of the Year and had a season-high 36 digs in the victory over South Dakota on Thursday.
FANS SHATTER BETTY ATTENDANCE MARK AGAIN: It stood for just over a year, but the record for UND volleyball attendance at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center was eclipsed on Sept. 17 and surpassed yet again on Oct. 23. The 2009 Fighting Sioux home opener had 508 spectators as the record crowd was treated to a sweep of HBU. That new figure did not last long as 891 fans came out for UND's annual 'Dig Pink' contest and the Sioux did not disappoint, sweeping New Jersey Institute of Technology to grab a share of first place in the Great West Conference. The old mark entering the season was 500 set on Sept. 10, 2008, when the Sioux also swept its opposition - Valley City State.
MAKING A CASE: Senior Britta Hanson is putting together another solid campaign in her final season with the Fighting Sioux and the Thompson, N.D. native is making a case for Great West Player of the Year honors. She currently leads the Great West Conference in blocks/set (1.55), total blocks (119) and block assists (107). Hanson also holds the top attack percentage in the league, finishing off attacks at a .302 clip (190k-57e-440a). Her 107 block assists are tied for the second most in a single season at UND and earlier this season she became just the 12th player in school history to join the 1,000-kill club. Hanson has 190 kills on the season.
DOMINATING DEFENSE: The Fighting Sioux limited Chicago State to a combined 30 points in their sweep of the Cougars on Oct. 25. The 30 points established a new record for fewest points allowed in a 3-set, rally-scoring match. The previous mark was set when the Sioux surrendered only 45 points against Evergreen State on Aug. 31, 2002.
VORTHERMS SURPASSES SUTTER IN SWEEP OF SOUTH DAKOTA: Senior Lindsay Vortherms etched her name a top the UND career digs list on Oct. 15 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 1,637 during her tenure with the Sioux.
STREAKY SIOUX: The Sioux are off to a 16-6 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 five-match winning streak that came to an end with the team's loss at Utah Valley (Oct. 1). The setback to the Wolverines was UND's only blemish in its last 12 matches thanks to their current season long six-match win streak, which began with a sweep of UTPA on Oct. 8.
BROOM, BROOM, BROOM: The Fighting Sioux bring a six-match win streak into play on Saturday against Utah Valley and by sweeping all six of those opponents, set a new school record. The 2009 club now holds the record for consecutive sweeps, breaking the previous mark of five set by the 2008 team.
SWEEPING SUCCESS: The Fighting Sioux hold a 7-1 mark in Great West Conference play so far this season and all seven of those victories have come via the sweep. UND has swept every team in the Great West Conference except for Utah Valley - the squad playing the Sioux at 'The Betty' on Saturday. 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.
ACES ABOUND: The Fighting Sioux set a new season-high for aces in their sweep of Chicago State with 12. Sophomore Devin Trefz set a new career-high with seven of those, while senior Megan Langseth equaled her career-high with four. Sophomore Taylor Bohannon had the 12th ace of the match. Trefz led the team in aces a season ago with 35 and currently ranks second this season with 19. Sophomore Annika Smed holds the top spot with 24 aces. She has flip-flopped positions with Trefz after ranking second in 2008 with 31.
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 21 matches this season, Langseth has 809 assists and has collected at least 30 helpers in 18 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 2,738 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 (349) and fourth in total blocks (415) with her stellar play in the middle this season. She leads the team with 12 solo blocks and a career-high 107 block assists. Those 107 block assists are tied for the second most 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 183 on the season, she cracked the top 10 list and sits in ninth place with 1,090.
DOUBLE THREAT: It should come as little surprise that sophomore Annika Smed leads the team with six double-doubles through 22 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 (230) and digs (243). 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. Smed currently ranks sixth in the Great West with a 2.99 kill/set average.
TREFZ ON TOP: Sophomore Devin Trefz is off to a blistering start in the kills department through 22 matches. She leads the team with 279 successful attacks and her average of 3.62 kills/set is nearly a kill higher than her average of 2.77/set (319 total) from her freshman season. It also ranks her second in that category among Great West players. Trefz has reached double figures in kills in 19 of 22 matches for the Sioux and has led the club in that category in 18 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 130 kills and has twice collected 10 kills in a match (Aug. 28 vs. UMKC and Sept. 23 at Gonzaga).
EFFICIENT ATTACKER: Senior Amanda Polzin is second on the Sioux in attack percentage (.208, 127k-59e-327a) through the first 22 matches of the campaign. At the UniWyo Cowgirl Invite, she had 22 kills and finished with a team-best .419 attack percentage (22k-4e-43a). A career .240 attacker coming into the season, she opened Great West play by hitting .385 in the sweep of HBU and .533 with 10 kills against UTPA.
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 five 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.
DIG PINK: The Oct. 25 match against NJIT was the annual 'Dig Pink' match at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. Fans came out in record numbers (891) in support of breast cancer education and awareness. The first 500 fans received a free give-away and pink t-shirts will also be available for a monetary donation. All proceeds went 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.
CONFERENCE CASUALTIES: With only Great West opponents remaining on its slate, UND will wrap up its second season of Division I volleyball by defeating schools from seven different conferences and one independent. Those victories have come over teams from the Great West (HBU and UTPA), Mid-American Conference (Akron), the Summit League (UMKC), the Missouri Valley Conference (Indiana State), Ohio Valley (SIU-Edwardsville), West Coast (Gonzaga) and the Big Sky (Montana State). SeattleU is an independent.
