Live Stats (Mary)
Live Stats (Minot)
Live Video (both matches)
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- The Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team will play two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matches this week -- one on the road and one at home. The Dragons start the week on Thursday at Mary for a 7 p.m. match before returning home to play host to Minot State at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Live stats and live video links can be accessed above, while game notes can be found below.

The Dragons (13-12, 5-11 NSIC) split two matches at home last weekend, losing to No. 5-ranked Minnesota-Duluth before beating St. Cloud State in four sets.

Sophomore Annie Palmquist paces a balanced MSUM hitting attack with 289 kills, averaging 2.95 per set. Senior Heidi Lensing has 274 kills, while sophomore Maggie Gruber has 229 and freshman Kaitlin VanWinkle has 208. Senior setter Anna Olson has 680 assists, while freshman Casie Baer has 308. Senior Katy Ness leads with 21 service aces and 626 digs. VanWinkle has an impressive 111 total blocks, averring 1.14 per set.

As a team, MSUM is hitting .214, compared to .191 for its opponents.

Tammy Blake, the dean of NSIC volleyball coaches, is in her 18th year at MSUM. She is 313-239 at the school.

The Opponents
About Mary
Mary is 3-20 on the season and 3-13 in the NSIC. The Marauders have lost seven in a row, including a four-set loss at Minnesota-Crookston on Saturday. Allison Opp leads Mary with 177 kills, while Lauren Boldt has 157. Emily Turkowski has 622 set assists, while Valerie Lesu leads with 347 digs. Paige Smith has 65 total blocks for the Marauders as well.
Mary is hitting, while its opponents are hitting .232.
Steve Novacek is in his third season as Mary's head coach with a record of 11-72 at the school.

About Minot State
The Beavers are 6-20 overall and 2-14 in the NSIC. They are coming off of a sweep of Bemidji State on Oct. 27.
Minot State is led by Mallory Sall, who has 361 kills, averaging 3.92 per set. Shari Hewson has 218 kills.  Emily Byrne has 806 set assists, while Ashley Heavenor has 259 digs. Tarah Dabovich has 70 total blocks.
The Beavers are hitting just .137 on the season, compared to .232 for their opponents.
Travis Ward is in his first season as Minot State's head coach with a record of 6-20 at the school.

National Rankings
--Ness ranks 5th in the nationally in Division II in digs per set at 6.39.
--VanWinkle ranks 38th in blocks per set at 1.14.
--As a team, the Dragons rank 15th in the nation in set assists per set (13.14), 18th in kills per set (13.9), 19th in digs per set (17.82) and 26th in blocks per set (2.26).

Climbing the Charts
--Ness has moved into second all-time in career digs at MSUM with 2,096 and trails record-holder Calla Oftedahl by 297 with four regular-season matches remaining.
--Lensing is at 1,251 kills and is now fifth all-time in school history. She is just 27 kills away from fourth and 49 away from 1,300.
--Olson is at 2,089 set assists, ranking her eighth all-time and just 17 from seventh.

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 seven times (Sept. 4, 10, 24, Oct. 1, Oct. 15, Oct. 22 and Oct. 29), 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.