FULL PDF NOTEBOOK  |  LIVE STATS v. U-MARY  |  LIVE STATS AT CSP  |  LIVE STATS AT MSU  |  LIVE VIDEO  |  TICKETS

Teams: Minot State vs. University of Mary | Series: U-Mary leads series 55-39
Date: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014 | Time: 7 p.m. | Site: MSU Dome
Teams: Minot State at #3 Concordia-St. Paul | Series: Concordia leads series 3-0
Date: Friday, Oct. 31, 2014 | Time: 7 p.m. | Site: Gangelhoff Center
Teams: Minot State at Minnesota State | Series: Minnesota State leads series 2-1
Date: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014 | Time: 4 p.m. | Site: Taylor Center

MATCHUPS: Minot State takes on a familiar foe in the University of Mary Tuesday and then heads out on the road to No. 3 ranked Concordia St. Paul Friday and Minnesota State Saturday. The Beavers and Marauders have played 94 times as members of the NAIA and NCAA Division II and tipoff for the second 2014 contests between rivals is set for 7 p.m. at the MSU Dome. Minot State will paly at 7 p.m. on Halloween in St. Paul, Minn., hoping to scare up its first win over a ranked opponent since moving to DII and finishes off their road schedule at MSU Saturday at 4 p.m.

RECORDS: The Beavers are currenlty 8-16 overall and are 5-10 in Northern Sun play. Minot State is riding a season-high three-match winning streak and have won four of its last five matches. The Golden Bears are again one of the top teams in the country as the seven-time national champions are 20-3 overall and 13-2 overall. They are 11-0 at home. CSP last lost at No. 2 Minnesota Duluth Oct. 11. Minnesota State has been up and down as of late, but still comes into the week at 14-8 overall and 10-5 in the NSIC. The Mavericks are 6-4 since coming to Minot a month ago.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State's Travis Ward is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Beaver volleyball program. Ward has a career record of 36-58 during his tenure at Minot State. In 2013, Ward led the Beavers to 12 overall wins, doubling their win total from 2012 which was the team's first year in the NSIC. Minnesota State-Mankota is led by Dennis Amundson, who is in his 10th season with the Mavericks. Amundson previously served as an assistant at NCAA Division I University of Minnesota. Brady Starkey is in his 12th season with Concordia-St. Paul and has won 11 NSIC championships. Starkey has led the Golden Bears to seven national championships and has an overall record of 374-33. U-Mary is led by first-year head coach Melissa Chaplin. Chaplin previously coached at NCAA Division II St. Andrews Presbyterian College. She played volleyball at the collegiate level at both Iowa State and Iowa, both NCAA Division I schools.

RANKINGS: In the most recent poll released by the American Volleyball Coaches Association on Oct. 27, Concordia-St. Paul came in as the No. 3 ranked team in the country. U-Mary, Minnesota State and Minot State are all unranked in the week of Oct. 27.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State is currently in the middle of a three-game winning streak, they're first such streak of the season, and they've also won four of their last five. This past week, the Beavers renewed an old Dakota Athletic Conference rivalry with Dickinson State. The Beavers came out on top in the contest sweeping the Bluehawks 3-0. This past weekend, the Beavers returned to NSIC action and did so with two home wins. Friday night Minot State proved to be the better of the two Beaver programs as the defeated Bemidji State 3-1. Minot State capped off the weekend with a nail-biting five-set match against Minnesota-Crookston. Both Mallory Sall (Jr., OH, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia) and Jen Dixon (Sr., OH, Brandon, Manitoba) ended the match with 25 kills leading the Beavers to their third straight victory.

NOTING THE MARAUDERS: U-Mary is in the midst of a two-game losing streak and have lost 14 of their last 15 games this season. This past weekend the Marauders dropped their first game of the weekend to Minnesota-Crookston in straight sets. The team had a .113 hitting percentage as opposed to the Golden Eagles' .274. The following day, U-Mary dropped a close match to Bemidji State that went to five sets. Despite holding a 2-1 leaded, Mary was unable to close the game.

NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: Concordia-St. Paul is currently in the middle of a five-game winning streak and they've only lost two games in the NSIC so far this season. This past weekend the Golden Bears traveled to Southwest Minnesota State where they squeaked out a five-set victory to the No. 5 ranked team in the country. After going down 2-1, the Golden Bears put their foot down and won the next two sets by scores of 25-17 and 15-7. The following day the team traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D. for a less stressful match against the University of Sioux Falls. The Bears took the match 3-1.

NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State began this past weekend with a close 3-2 defeat at the University of Sioux Falls. The Mavericks took the game to five sets despite only hitting .158 while the Cougars hit .341 in the match. The following day, Minnesota State defeated the No. 5 team in the country when they downed Southwest Minnesota State 3-1 on the road. Krista Hassing led the way with 19 kills good for a 4.75 kills per set average.

A CAREER WEEK: Minot State's Jen Dixon (Sr., OH, Brandon, Manitoba) had a stellar week for the Beavers this past week as she hit over .300 in all three matches. Dixon hit a ridiculous .733 in the team's win over Dickinson State and followed that up with a 25 kill performance against Minnesota-Crookston where she had a hitting percentage of .365. Dixon came up just two kills short of tying her career-high of 27 kills in a match.

JUST AS IMPRESSIVE: Junior Tarah Dabovich (MH, Phoenix, Ariz.) may not have recorded quite as many kills as Dixon, but she didn't take as many swings and she was very efficient with the swings she took. Dabovich recorded her second-best hitting percentage of the season in the team's win over Dickinson State, ending with a .538 hitting percentage. In the following two games, she ended with 11 and 19 kills respectively, and hit over .400 in both. Her overall hitting percentage was boosted to .298 on the season.

COMPLETING THE BIG THREE: While Mallory Sall (Jr., OH, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia) started the week slowly based on her standards, the junior outside hitter capped off the week with a bang. Sall recorded a season-high 25 kills in the match against Minnesota-Crookston. She's recorded 20+ kills in six different matches this year for the Beavers.

BY THE NUMBERS
1: With five games remaining on their schedule, the Beavers only have one nationally ranked team to play in those five games.

3: Despite the team's early season struggles, Minot State is just three games out of 8th place in the NSIC, the final spot that receives a bid to the conference tournament.

70: Setter Emily Byrne (Sr., Reno, Nev.) recorded a career-high 70 assists in the Beavers' five-set win over Minnesota-Crookston. She crushed her previous career-high of 61 set back in 2011.