Women's Volleyball | 10/24/2024 10:38:00 AM

#TIDBITS

Golden Eagle volleyball is in the midst of not only a three-match road trip spanning two states, but also a grueling part of their October schedule. Minnesota Crookston will close out their road trip this weekend at UMary and Minot State, before being back home next weekend for three matches in four days. The Golden Eagles will look to get back to their winning ways this weekend against the Marauders, who are just ahead of the Golden Eagles in the NSIC and the Beavers of Minot State, who are winless in Northern Sun play.

·   MORE MARATHON MATCHES? The Marauders and Golden Eagles have met eight times since 2018 and all eight matches between the two programs have gone four or more sets. The Marauders have controlled the last eight matches, winning six of those matches, as well as two of the three matches that have gone five sets. Both matches last season between Minnesota Crookston and UMary went five sets, with the home team winning the marathon matches. In fact, both matches saw the Golden Eagles down 2-0 in the set and they almost pulled off the rarity of two reverse sweeps against the same team in a year. In the only match between the two this year, there is a good chance that it goes longer than the mandatory three sets.

• MAYA IN NORTH DAKOTA. Last season, sophomore Maya Jones enjoyed her trip to the Peace Garden State. Against the Marauders and Beavers, in the same exact order, the New Braunfels, Texas native finished the weekend with 33 kills and hit .343 against Minot State, one of the best hitting percentages of her young career. If Jones hits like she did last year in North Dakota, the Golden Eagles have a good chance of heading back to Minnesota with a pair of wins.

·  MALEK IN THE MIDDLE. Another interesting factoid when looking back on last year's match against the Beavers and Marauders is you'd see Emma Malek finish with a career-high 41 kills against UMary and added 38 more against Minot State last season. You might be thinking how Malek, who is a middle, finished with that many assists. Malek, out of necessity, needed to play setter and was great in that role the final stretch of the season. This year, Malek won't need to be the setter and the Golden Eagles are thankful that she can play her natural position against the Marauders and Beavers.

·   STUFFED.  In last Thursday's win at Bemidji State, the most impactful part of the win for the Golden Eagles was getting a touch at the net. The Golden Eagles finished with nine blocks in the match and had just one blocking error. The block to error ratio was the best for the Golden Eagles this season. Their nine blocks against the Beavers is their most since Sept. 5, 2022 against Illinois-Springfield, when they finished with 11 in the four set win. The Golden Eagles will look for more of that same success this weekend against UMary and Minot State.

·    DYNAMIC DUO. Against Minot State last weekend, Carizma Muth and Maya Jones were fantastic, helping the Golden Eagles to the four-set win over BSU. Muth, the redshirt freshman and Jones, the sophomore, each finished with 13 kills and were paramount in the first NSIC win for the Golden Eagles. Muth also collected her fourth double-double of the season in the match and also finished with a career mark of five service aces, three of which came within a five point span in the third set to win the swing set.

·   DON'T CHANGE A THING. That might be the message to Madison Carsten when she steps foot on the McDowell Activity Center on Friday. When the Golden Eagles faced the Marauders for the first time last season, Carsten was unreal in the five-set, thrilling win, finishing with a career-high 17 digs and 23 digs, also a career-high. Carsten was a big reason why the maroon and gold came back to reverse sweep the Marauders. The Golden Eagles will look to start quicker this time around and Carsten could be the key to the fast starts.

• NATIONAL RECOGNITION. Kailee Waasdorp is not only one of the better backrow players in the NSIC, but she is also quickly becoming one of the better backrow players in the nation. Waasdorp and her 4.91 digs per set are fifth in the NSIC and 42nd nationally. The sophomore has just two matches this year where she has not finished with more than 10 digs. In her 43 career matches as a Golden Eagle, Waasdorp has just six matches without 10 or more digs, which is an astonishing number. Waasdorp's digs per set of 4.91 would be a school record in a season, should that number hold throughout the next month.

·   WEIRD STRETCH. As is customary in the best Division II volleyball conference, the Golden Eagles have played an extremely challenging schedule up to this point. This week is the start of an interesting stretch for the maroon and gold as they close out October. The Golden Eagles started with No. 3 St. Cloud State on Tuesday and will wrap-up their brief road trip this weekend, before hosting three matches in four days next weekend, starting next Wednesday against Bemidji State. It will be one of the first stretches where the Golden Eagles have played conference matches in that short span dating back to 2012.


Team Information
2024 Record: 4-13


How to Follow

Minnesota Crookston @ UMary
Friday, Oct. 25
6 P.M.
Bismarck, N.D. / McDowell Activity Center
Live Stats -- https://goumary.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Watch Live -- https://nsicnetwork.com/goumary/


Minnesota Crookston @ Minot State
Saturday, Oct. 26
2 P.M.
Minot, N.D. / Minot State Dome
Live Stats -- https://msubeavers.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Watch Live -- https://nsicnetwork.com/msubeavers/


#OPPONENTOUTLOOK

UMARY. The Marauders come into Friday night's match with the Golden Eagles with a pair of NSIC victories over Minot State and MSU Moorhead and have won two of their last three matches. UMary will look to stay ahead of the Golden Eagles in the NSIC standings.

RECORD HOLDER. In their five-set loss to Winona State, senior Kaia Sueker became the Marauders all-time NCAA digs leader in a career. Sueker heads into the match with the Golden Eagles with 1,657 digs in her outstanding career. The Golden Eagles know just how good Seueker can be, as she averaged 28 digs in the two matches against the Golden Eagles last season. Pretty impressive for Sueker, who originally was on the Track & Field team at the University of Mary.

AUCKLAND AWESOME. Charli Blackman (not the Colorado Rockies outfielder who just retired), has come in and has been fantastic for the Marauders this season. The transfer from Western Nebraska CC leads the Marauders in points, kills, total attacks and is one of two Marauders to start in all 19 matches. The New Zealander has four double-doubles on the season.

LAND OF THE FREE(D). Junior setter Maddy Freed has been fantastic this season for the Marauders. Freed ranks in the top-10 in the NSIC in both assists and assists per set and ranks in the top-70 in both of those categories, as well. Freed is a match removed from a whopping 56 assists in a thrilling win over MSU Moorhead and has four matches with more than 40 assists this season.

MINOT STATE. The Beavers will look to get off the schneid this weekend when they host Bemidji State on Friday and Minnesota Crookston on Saturday. The Beavers are winless in Northern Sun play and have yet to take a set in conference play. Minot State has one win this season and that win was over Brandon University of Manitoba, so the Beavers have yet to beat an NCAA team this year.

LOCAL KID. The Beavers finished with one NSIC win a season ago and that was at the same team they will see Saturday, Minnesota Crookston. The Beavers came back to stun the Golden Eagles in a reverse sweep. One of the Beavers who was outstanding in that match was Bailee Brommenschenkel. The Ada, Minn., product was outstanding, finishing with a career-high 13 kills against the maroon and gold. The senior will look for a duplicate performance this Saturday.

LARGE DIFFERENCE. Heading into this weekend, the Beavers have just 44 aces on the season, which ranks last in the nation. In comparison, they have given up 136 service aces on the season, which also ranks near the bottom in the nation. That might be good news for the Golden Eagles, who have doubled up the Beavers in aces with 91 on the year.

GIVE ME A TRY. Paulina Kowalska has been the Beaver that has been as consistent as any other attacker this season. The junior from Wroclaw, Poland leads her team in kills with 136 on the season and total attacks with 451. Kowalska hasn't had a match this season where she hasn't had four or more kills. There is a good chance the Beavers will continue to look to the junior this Saturday.