Women's Volleyball | 10/29/2025 2:17:00 PM

#TIDBITS

Golden Eagle volleyball is back on the road for their longest road trip of the NSIC season, one that will span two weekends and four matches against two ranked opponents and two more that are still fighting for a conference tournament berth. The road trip starts this weekend against Augustana and then a visit to No. 6 Wayne State College.

·   HALLOWEEN VOLLEYBALL. Minnesota Crookston will be playing volleyball this weekend on the holiday that permits trips to the dentist. Minnesota Crookston will play on Halloween this year for the first time since 2019 when they lost to Bemidji State in four sets on their home floor. The Golden Eagles are 1-1 on Halloween dating back to 2017, as they also swept Bemidji State on the road in 2017 on Halloween. Minnesota Crookston will look for a similar result this Halloween.

·   ANOTHER CRACK AT THE VIKINGS. This will be the last weekend for the Golden Eagles where they have seen their opponent earlier this year. Minnesota Crookston played Augustana and Wayne State College earlier this year to open up the home schedule this season. In their last match against the Vikings, Madison Carsten was outstanding, finishing with 16 kills, albeit in a three set loss. The Golden Eagles will look for their best attacker to have the same type of match against AU.

·   BACK TO THE BASICS. Minnesota Crookston has really struggled as of late to find the floor when they are on the attack. The Golden Eagles have two straight matches hitting less than .100 as a team and have three matches in a seven match stretch where they have hit less than .100, which includes a match against Minot State. The Golden Eagles would like to get back to the aggressive approach they had earlier in the season, which helped them get off to their best start in a decade.

·  TWO MORE AT HOME. It seems crazy to think about, but Minnesota Crookston will close out their season with just three weekends left in conference play; two on the road and one at home to close out the regular season. It's been a tough conference season, but the Golden Eagles will look to close out the year strong.

• SECOND HIGHEST. Speaking of attacking percentage, let's talk about the last time the Golden Eagles and Vikings met. Sure, it was a three set win for the Vikings, but the Golden Eagles did some things well in that match. In that match, Minnesota Crookston hit .167 in the match, which was their second highest attacking percentage in conference play. The problem for the Golden Eagles was that Augustana hit over .350 in the match. If the Golden Eagles can figure that out, it should be a good match inside the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls.

·   QUALITY OPPONENTS. The six match stretch to close out the season for the Golden Eagles is not easy. Let's just assume that someone within the Golden Eagles made the schedule makers upset, because it sure looks that way with the last six matches for the Golden Eagles. In their last six matches, the Golden Eagles will play four opponents that are ranked or are receiving votes this year and five of the six opponents will be in the NSIC tournament this year.

• DOUBLE E. Ellery Ehresmann has gotten off to a really nice start to her Golden Eagle career as a freshman. The setter from Albany, Minn., has seemed to bring some stability to an important position, along with Dana Melby. Ehresmann has split time with Melby this year at the setter position, but she has seemed to grow night in and night out. Ehresmann had 25 assists against Minnesota Duluth, which tied a career high. Ehresmann also has two double-doubles on the year as well.

·   THE SCHNETTLER STORIES. Lauren Schnettler's role has grown a ton as of late, which correlates with the injury of Kailee Waasdorp, who has missed the last two matches. Schnettler in the back row has been good, finishing with 19 digs over the weekend and a career high 12 against nationally-ranked Southwest Minnesota State. Schnettler is also averaging 3.5 assists per match over her last three matches, which is somewhat rare for a libero.


Series Quick Look vs the opponents
Augustana is 25-1 against the Golden Eagles all-time
Wayne State College Leads the all-time series 35-2 and rides a 30 match win streak

How to Follow

Minnesota Crookston @ Augustana
Friday, Oct. 31
4 P.M.
Sioux Falls, S.D. / Elmen Center
Live Stats -- https://goaugie.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Watch Live -- https://nsicnetwork.com/goaugie/

Minnesota Crookston @ No. 6 Wayne State College
Saturday, Nov. 1
2 P.M.
Wayne, Neb. / Rice Auditorium
Live Stats -- https://wscwildcats.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary
Watch Live -- https://nsicnetwork.com/wscwildcats/

#OPPONENTOUTLOOK

AUGUSTANA. Augustna has really struggled as of late, although they are 2-2 in their last four with a really nice win over Sioux Falls. Augustana is 4-10 in conference play and needs a strong end to the conference play if they want to make the NSIC tournament and that starts this weekend with Minnesota Crookston and MSU Moorhead.

DOMINANT OFFENSIVELY. The last time Augustana met the Golden Eagles, they had arguably their best offensive performance of the season. Augustana hit .370 as a team, which was the highest of the season. Since then, Augie has yet to eclipse the .300 attacking percentage mark and the closest they've gotten to that mark was a .248 attacking percentage against Bemidji State just two matches later.

I'M THE VIKINGS, HOW MAY I SERVE YOU? In their win over Bemidji State their last time out, the Vikings were helped by their success at the service line. The Vikings hit just .200 in the match, but they finished with 14 service aces, which is three short of their season high.

WAYNE STATE COLLEGE. Another year, another successful Wayne State College. The Wildcats are undoubtedly the cream of the crop in the ultra-competitive Northern Sun and with only one conference loss, they look well on their way to another NSIC title. Wayne State's only loss was to CSP, when they fell in three sets.

CREAM OF THE CROP. There's a reason that WSC is one of the best teams in the entire nation. WSC ranks top five in the NSIC in digs, total digs,  digs per set, hitting percentage and opponents hitting percentage, among other things. It's tough to point out anything WSC isn't good at.

LAS ROBLES DRIVE. Channatee Robles is two weeks removed from being named the AVCA National Player of the Week in a pair of wins over Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State. In those matches, she had an attacking percentage of over .350 and finished with 24 kills over SMSU. Robles is one of many dangerous weapons the Wildcats have at their disposal.