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MOORHEAD, Minn. -- The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team wraps up its five-match homestand this weekend by hosting No. 5-ranked Minnesota-Duluth on Friday and St. Cloud State on Saturday.
Friday's match begins at 7 p.m. with Saturday's match starting at 4 p.m. Both matches will be at Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse in Moorhead, Minn.
Live stats and live video links can be accessed above, while game notes can be found below.
The Dragons (12-11, 4-10 NSIC) lost three tough matches at home last week, losing five-set contests to Northern State and Augustana and losing in four sets to No. 18 Wayne State.
MSUM is led by sophomore hitter
Annie Palmquist, who has 269 kills and is hitting .215 for the season. Senior
Heidi Lensing has 253 kills, while sophomore
Maggie Gruber has 209 and freshman
Kaitlin VanWinkle 193. Senior setter
Anna Olson has 631 set assists, while senior libero
Katy Ness has 568 digs (best in the NSIC). VanWinkle leads with 90 total blocks, an average of 1.01 per game.
As a team, MSUM is hitting .216, compared to .195 for its opponents.
Tammy Blake, the dean of NSIC volleyball coaches, is in her 18th year at MSUM. She is 312-238 at the school.
The Opponents
About Minnesota-Duluth
No. 4-ranked Minnesota-Duluth is 21-2 overall and 12-2 in the NSIC. The Bulldogs, winners of four in a row, went 3-0 last week, beating St. Cloud State in four sets and sweeping Upper Iowa and Winona State.
UMD possesses one of the NSIC's top hitters in junior Kate Lange, who has 391 kills in the season, averaging 4.95 per set. Ashley Hinsch has 727 set assists, while Julie Rainey leads with 385 digs. Monica Turner leads with 82 blocks.
Minnesota-Duluth's head coach is Jim Boos, who is in his 11th season and has a record of 290-54.
About St. Cloud State
The Huskies are 6-16 overall and 2-12 in the NSIC. The Dragons beat them in four sets earlier this season in St. Cloud, Minn.
St. Cloud State went 0-3 last week, losing to Minnesota-Duluth and Winona State in four sets and to Upper Iowa in three. Ellie Dietzen leads SCSU with 200 kills, while Rachel Burke has 194. Erin Ohlemann has 617 set assists, while Brianne Stammer has 388 digs. Dietzen leads with 75 blocks.
Michelle Blaeser is in her third season as SCSU's head coach with a record of 26-52 at the school.
National Rankings
--Ness ranks 5th in the nationally in Division II in digs per set at 6.31.
--VanWinkle ranks 74th in blocks per set at 1.01.
--As a team, the Dragons rank 15th in the nation in set assists per set (13.17), 18th in kills per set (13.96), 20th in digs per set (17.79) and 41st in blocks per set (2.16).
Climbing the Charts
--Ness has moved into second all-time in career digs at MSUM with 2,038 and trails record-holder Calla Oftedahl by 297 with six regular-season matches remaining.
--Lensing is at 1,230 kills and is now sixth all-time in school history. She is just four kills away from fifth.
--Olson is at 2,040 set assists, ranking her eighth all-time. She surpassed 2,000 set assists in the five-set loss to Augustana.
NSIC Players of the Week
Ness became the first MSUM player to earn NSIC Player of the Week honors this season, and has earned the Defensive Player of the Week honors six times (Sept. 4, 10, 24, Oct. 1, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22), most of any player. She leads the NSIC at 6.17 digs per set and is ranked seventh in the nation in that category.
NSIC preseason poll
The Dragons were picked to finish seventh in the NSIC preseason coaches poll. The Dragons received 146 votes in the poll, just five away from sixth-place Augustana. Defending national champion Concordia led the poll with 225 points and 15 first-place votes. The regular-season champion will be determined by a 20-game conference schedule and will host the top eight teams qualifying in the NSIC tournament, to be held on Nov. 16-18.
