Minnesota Crookston Volleyball Back at Home Two Final Times in 2019; Celebrate Senior Night on Saturday


Minnesota Crookston is back inside Lysaker Gymnasium for one final time this season as they do battle with ranked opponents Upper Iowa and Winona State for the second time this season. Minnesota Crookston traveled to both Winona State and Upper Iowa in late September, getting swept by both the Peacocks and Warriors. This weekend, the Golden Eagles will celebrate their five seniors; Kaitlin Sikkink, Ali Schueler, Meli Rodriguez, Sabrina Leuer and Alyssa Thomas will all get recognized for their time and effort put into the program over their career.

• END ON A HIGH NOTE. The five Golden Eagle seniors will look to end their Golden Eagle careers on a high note. Getting two wins at home this weekend would go a long way in doing that. The Golden Eagles will have to replace five seniors who have meant a lot to the program and each have left their own foot prints on the Minnesota Crookston volleyball program.

• REVENGE. Minnesota Crookston will look to avenge their early season loss to both the Peacocks and Warriors this weekend inside Lysaker Gymnasium. The Golden Eagles traveled to Upper Iowa and Winona State for their first road weekend of conference play in late September. Now, in early November, the Golden Eagles will look to avenge those losses in the last home weekend of the season.

• DOMINATION. Led by Kaitlin Sikkink's 57.0 blocks on the season, the Golden Eagles have been one of the best team in the conference in terms of blocks. Individually, the Golden Eagles have six players with 20 or more blocks on the season, including the 57.0 from Sikkink and 39.0 from sophomore Lauren Wallace. Shelby Dunbar and Porsha Porath have contributed in a big way as well, accounting for 27.0 and 26.0 blocks, respectively. As a team, Minnesota Crookston has 206 blocks on the season, which is 60 more than their opponents. Minnesota Crookston will look to continue their success at the net this weekend.

• START STRONG. It will be important this weekend for the Golden Eagles to get off to a fast start in the opening set. In the first match with the Peacocks, the Golden Eagles jumped off to a really fast start, jumping out to fast 8-2 and 11-4 leads, before the Peacocks would chip away and eventually win the first set. In any sport, it's important to jump out to quick starts and the Golden Eagles will look for a little deja vu this Friday night against Upper Iowa when it comes to starting fast.

• NICE RUN. Caledonia, Wis., native Natalie Koke has enjoyed a solid four straight matches for her squad. The redshirt freshman setter had an outstanding game against Augustana on 10/25, where she collected 10 assists, her fourth match of the season with double-digit assists. Koke followed up that performance with a 15 assist, four dig match on Halloween against Bemidji State. She finished up her solid four match stretch with an 11 assist, nine dig performance against St. Cloud State, just one dig away from her first career double-double. It's been an excellent two week stretch for Koke and she will look to continue that stretch over the final two weekends in her first season for the maroon and gold.

• 300. Sophomore outside hitter Porsha Porath has been a standout this season for Head Coach Sarah Rauen and the Golden Eagles. Porath leads her team in a number of offensive categories including points, points per set, kills, total attacks and is second on her team in hitting percentage. Porath is on pace to eclipse some pretty impressive numbers. The Windom, Minn., native is 82 total attacks away from the 1,000 mark on the season, which hasn't been done by a Golden Eagle since 2017, when Kassi Green had 1,094 on the season. Porsha is also sitting at 263 kills on the season and is well on her way to 300 kills on the season.

• D-E-F-E-N-S-E. The Golden Eagles have been good defensively this season with six players with over 100 digs on the season. The leader of that group is junior Katie Lienemann who leads the Golden Eagles with 294 digs on the season. Lienemann has already surpassed her career-high of digs on a season which she set last season at 255 digs. The Rosemount, Minn., native had 39 digs in a match earlier this season against Minot State.


Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles
Head Coach: Sarah Rauen
Record at UMC: 15-65 Season at UMC: Third Season

Upper Iowa at Minnesota Crookston
Date: Fri., Nov. 8
Time: 6:00 p.m.
90's Night
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/crk/
Live Stats: https://goldeneaglesports.com/sidearmstats/wvball/media

Winona State at Minnesota Crookston
Date: Sat., Nov. 9
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Senior Night
Video: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/crk/
Live Stats: https://goldeneaglesports.com/sidearmstats/wvball/media


#Tidbits
UPPER IOWA. The Peacocks are fighting for a lot as they enter the final two weekends of the regular season. The Peacocks are No. 22 in the nation and are eighth in the NSIC standings. The top eight teams make the NSIC playoffs, so saying the final four games for the Peacocks would be a mighty large understatement.

WINTER IS COMING. A senior for Upper Iowa, Anna Winter is leading her team in kills for the season. Averaging over 4 per set, Winter has totaled up 360 kills for the season so far. She set her season high of 36 kills in the game against Saint Cloud State University. Winter has also tallied up 100 digs for herself and her team helping to bring their season to a 17-7 record.

READ IT AND WEEP(IE). Haley Weepie, senior from Fairbank, Iowa, has been averaging almost 5 digs per game. Weepie is leading her team in digs. As a great defensive player for Upper Iowa, she has tallied up 397 digs on the season. Weepie's season high was against Michigan State where she earned 36 digs.

SARAH STRENGTH. Upper Iowa added freshman Sarah Johnson to their roster this season. Standing at 6'0 from Elk River, Minnesota, Johnson is having a breakout first year. Leading Upper Iowa in blocks, she has earned 77 blocks. Her season high was in one of the teams earlier games against Michigan Tech with 8 blocks.

WINONA STATE. Winona State has enjoyed a really nice season and has played really well as of late. The Warriors come into this weekend sixth in the conference at 10-6 and is well on their way to the NSIC playoffs. Winona State swept the Golden Eagles down in Winona, Minn., in late September.

DIFFERENT COLORED JERSEY. Becca Pagel, starting libero as a junior for Winona state is leading her team in digs with 379. Pagel has led all three of her years at Winona with 528 digs her freshman year and 421 her sophomore year. Earning over 4 digs per set, she has helped her team to their 18-6 record on the season.

THIS FLOM IS FOR YOU. Megan Flom, a 6'2 junior from Kenyon, Minn., is leading Winona state in kills. She has tallied up 294 for this season so far. Flom is the leader of this great defensive team that has 5 people with over 150 kills each.  She also led Winona last year in kills as a sophomore. Megan Flom was also on the NSIC All-Academic team in 2018.


RIZNER RIZES TO THE CHALLENGE. As a 5'10 middle blocker for Winona State, Madison Rizner has earned herself 96 blocks on the season so far. She has surpassed her freshman year total of 87 blocks for the season. Madison Riznor is from Richland Center, Wis.