ON TAP
North Dakota-- the Big Sky Conference North Division champion-- will head to the Big Sky Conference Tournament this weekend as the two-seed in the eight-team field. Action begins Thursday with UND and Montana squaring off in the quarterfinal opener at 11:30 a.m. Central from Pocatello, Idaho.

QUICK SETS
*North Dakota is 5th in the NCAA in total blocks (through Nov. 17) with 328.5 total.
*UND's 2.71 blocks per set average is second in the Big Sky and is 25th in NCAA.
*Faith Dooley's block total (160.0) is 5th in NCAA Division I and her per set average (1.36) is 27th.
*Dooley is second in the league in blocks with 1.36 per set.
*Nikki Husfeldt has generated 1,174 assists this season, 28th-most among NCAA D-I players.
*McKenzie Hart has 562 digs this season, a new school record, 20th-most in the NCAA in 2014.
*North Dakota is 6-0 in five-set matches this season.
*North Dakota's next win will tie the school-record for wins in a season (26).

UND AGAINST THE FIELD THIS SEASON
#1 Idaho State    0-1
#3 No. Colorado    1-1
#4 Idaho    2-0
#5 No. Arizona    0-1
#6 Portland State    1-0
#7 Montana    2-0
#8 Southern Utah    1-0
Combined record    7-3

North Dakota is 7-3 against the 2014 Big Sky Conference Tournament field, including 2-0 against quarterfinal matchup #7 Montana. With a win, UND would face either #3 Northern Colorado or #6 Portland State.

WE'RE GOING STREAKING!
North Dakota has ripped off seven straight wins to end the regular season, its longest winning streak of the season. UND also has a pair of five-match streaks as well this season.

FIVE-OH!
UND has been quite comfortable in five-set matches this season, going a bonkers 6-0 in those situations. In two of those instances, North Dakota rallied from down two sets to none, including the regular season finale at Eastern Washington (Nov. 15). All told, UND has outscored its opponent 95-63 in the fifth set this season.  

I'M DIGGING HER HART
Junior McKenzie Hart has set a new single-season dig record at UND with 562 this season. She is now just four shy of surpassing the 1,000-dig barrier, a mark three of her teammates have already surpassed (Lauren Clarke- 1309, Lexi Robinson- 1114, Nikki Husfeldt- 1045)

IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT....
Senior Lexi Robinson had a Saturday to remember in the win over Southern Utah (Oct. 25). She picked up career dig No. 1,000 in the first set, then career kill No. 1,000 at the end of the second set. For the match, she tallied a career-high-tying 23 digs and added 12 kills for one of her team leading 12 double-doubles on the season.

BEAR-ING IT ALL
North Dakota went into a Nov. 1 contest with Northern Colorado without a home win in the all-time series against the Bears. Ever. UNC owned a 32-3 stranglehold in the overall meetings between the schools, but UND etched a historic 3-1 victory to snap the home losing streak to the Bears. Prior to that win, UND had lost all 13 home games against UNC, winning just seven sets total, dating all the way back to 1990.

ALL ABOUT THAT FAITH, 'BOUT THAT FAITH (NO TREBLE)
Freshman Faith Dooley is in the top five in NCAA statistical rankings for total blocks with 160.0 entering this week. Her per-set average ranks 28th overall and she already owns the school record at UND. Her season blocking total is 11 better than the mark set last season by Lisa Parlich.

TWENTY-SOMETHINGS
UND has recorded its eighth 20-win season out of the last nine seasons. All-time, North Dakota has 15 seasons with 20-plus wins with the most wins coming in the Great West championship team of 2011 (26-5) and 1990's 26-11 campaign while playing in the North Central Conference. This North Dakota team is just one win shy of tying that school-record for wins (26).

FIVE GRAND
Senior Nikki Husfeldt broke UND's all-time career assist mark in an Oct. 3 win at Montana. She broke the mark that had been held for 12 seasons by former standout Holly Welter (1999-2002), who generated 4,698 assists in helping lead North Dakota to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance (D-II). Husfeldt recently catapulted past the 5,000 career assist mark in the first set of the win over Montana State on Nov. 6.

PUTTING TEAMS TO BETTY BYE
North Dakota is 93-38 (.710) all-time at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, which opened prior to the 2004 season.  Since 2008, UND is a staggering 71-12 (.855) including a school-record 13 wins in 2011. North Dakota recently had a 10-match winning streak at home snapped and is 22-4 at home the past two seasons.

RECORD REWIND
The University of North Dakota volleyball program holds a 640-727-3 (.468) record all-time since the first match was played on Sept. 22, 1976.

TO ERR IS NOT NORTH DAKOTAN
North Dakota has pieced together some impressive numbers when it comes to limiting attack errors. Already eight times this season, and in both wins last week, UND has had single digit attack error numbers. Most impressive may have been the nine-error output in a five-set match against Arkansas State on the opening weekend.

Opponent    Date    Attack Errors
MONTANA    Nov. 8    6 (3 sets)
vs. Mississippi Valley State    Sept. 18    7 (3 sets)
at Drake    Sept. 2    8 (3 sets)
MONTANA STATE    Nov. 6    9 (3 sets)
vs. Arkansas State    Aug. 29    9 (5 sets)
TULANE    Sept. 5    9 (3 sets)
vs. SIU Edwardsville    Sept. 20    9 (3 sets)
at Weber State    Oct. 10    9 (3 sets)

FROM SEE TO SHINING CHEL-SEA
Sophomore Chelsea Moser was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Sept. 29, after leading UND to a 2-0 week to start league play. For the week, the sophomore middle hit .367 with 24 kills and nine total blocks, adding 10 digs and a service ace. She recorded her first back-to-back double-digit kill totals of her young career with last week's wins.
She becomes the second UND player to earn league honors this season after senior Nikki Husfeldt collected honors on Sept. 8.

PLAY ON, PLAYER
Senior Nikki Husfeldt was named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week after leading UND to an unblemished 5-0 mark Sept. 2-6. She recorded the first triple-double of UND's Division I era and notched a career-high 11 kills to go along with 50 assists and 15 digs in a thrilling win over South Dakota on Sept. 5. For the week, Husfeldt led UND in hitting percentage at .385 and averaged 10.61 assists per set. She added 2.33 digs per set and 0.67 blocks per set.

1,000-1,000 CLUB
Nikki Husfeldt and fellow senior Lexi Robinson are just the 10th and 11th UND players to ever achieve 1,000 kills or assists and 1,000 digs in their career. Robinson achieved the mark Oct. 25, surpassing both 1,000 kills and 1,000 career digs in the win vs. Southern Utah. Husfeldt turned the trick in the Nov. 1 win vs. Northern Colorado.