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Teams: Minot State at MSU-Moorhead | Series: MSU-M leads series 3-1
Date: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 | Time: 7 p.m. | Site: Alex Nemzek Fieldhouse
Teams: Minot State vs Minnesota State | Series: Series tied 1-1
Date: Friday, Sept. 26, 2014 | Time: 7 p.m. | Site: Minot State Dome
Teams: Minot State vs Concordia-St. Paul | Series: CSP leads series 2-0
Date: Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014 | Time: 6 p.m. | Site: Minot State Dome

RECORDS: Minot State finished the week of Sept. 15 with a 1-2 record. Their results from the week move their overall record to 3-8 and their conference record to 1-2. The Beavers have yet to play a home game, but that will change this upcoming Friday when they take on Minnesota State in the MSU Dome. Minnesota State-Moorhead enters the week with a 5-6 overall record. The Dragons have yet to win a conference match, currently sitting at 0-3. Minnesota State-Mankato holds a 7-3 overall record and are perfect in conference play with a 3-0 record. The seven-time national champion Golden Bears come into the week with a 9-2 overall record and 2-1 conference record after dropping a match to Minnesota State-Mankato.

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. Tammy Blake is in her 20th season with Minnesota State-Moorhead and is the winningest coach in the history of the program. Blake has recorded 13 winning seasons in her time with Moorhead and is the longest tenured coach 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.

RANKINGS: Concordia-St. Paul enters the week as the only ranked team the Beavers will face in competition. The Golden Bears came in ranked as the No. 2 team in the country in the most recent poll released on Sept. 15.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State began the 2014 season 2-0 marking the best start for the program in the last six seasons, but the Beavers found themselves in a slump as they headed into Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play. Minot State got back on the winning side of things when they defeated Mary 3-1 on Tuesday, Sept. 16. This past weekend, Beavers dropped two close matches on Friday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 20. In the team's match against Winona State on Friday, the Beavers dropped eight consecutive points to lose the match in the final set after leading 14-8. Minot State went on to lose the next day to Upper Iowa 3-0, but all three sets were decided by four or fewer points.

NOTING THE DRAGONS: Minnesota State-Moorhead entered NSIC play this past week with a 5-3 overall record, but the conference proved to be a tougher test than their previous non-conference match-ups. The Dragons dropped all three conference games this past week moving their record to 5-6 overall. Moorhead played arguably the three best teams in the NSIC when they started the week with No. 21 ranked Northern State, lost to 3-0 Minnesota State-Mankato, and dropped their final game of the week to No. 2 ranked Concordia-St. Paul.

NOTING THE MAVERICKS: Minnesota State is off to a strong start in the NSIC after going 3-0 this past week in the opening week of conference play. The Mavericks started off the week knocking off the No. 2 team in the country, Concordia-St. Paul, 3-1. Over the weekend the Mavericks defeated Minnesota State-Moorhead 3-2 and No. 21 ranked Northern State 3-1. Sitting atop the conference the Mavericks will look to stay there with three more conference games this week.

NOTING THE GOLDEN BEARS: The seven-time national champions got off to a slow start for their standards this past week in the NSIC when they dropped their first conference game to Minnesota State-Mankato 3-1. The Golden Bears rebounded nicely though in their following two matches defeating Northern State 3-2 and Minnesota State-Moorhead 3-0. Concordia is led by Anna Schlaak, who has 141 kills on the year for the Golden Bears.

DYNAMIC DUO: The combination of Jen Dixon (Sr., OH, Brandon, Manitoba) and Mallory Sall (Jr., OH, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia) has been a lethal combo for the Beavers so far this season. Dixon leads the team in kills with 150, while Sall is closely behind with 117 and would be even closer were it not for a concussion that sidelined her for a week.

MOVIN' LIKE BYRNE-Y: Emily Byrne (Sr., S, Reno, Nev.) may not make the highlight kills that Sall and Dixon make over the course of a match, but the senior setter is extremely talented at what she does. Byrne leads the Beavers with 445 assists and recorded a season high 60 assists in the team's heartbreaking loss to Winona State.

ON A TAR-AH: Junior Tarah Dabovich (MH, Phoenix, Ariz.) may not be getting the most kills on the team for the Beavers but she is the most efficient hitter. Dabovich boasts a .241 hitting percentage, good for 1st on the team. She also have 94 total kills which is the third highest on the team.

BY THE NUMBERS
3: All three teams the Beavers face this week are schools out of the state of Minnesota. The three Minnesota schools have a combined record of 21-10 and 5-4 in the NSIC, so the Beavers will be tested in the week of Sept. 22.

48: Minot State's Jen Dixon (Sr., OH, Brandon, Manitoba) needs just 48 more kills before she becomes the Beavers' all-time leader in kills. With a good week, Dixon has a very good chance of breaking the record this weekend at home.

105: The Beavers' Emily Byrne (Sr., S, Reno, Nev.) is on the edge of breaking an all-time Minot State volleyball record as well. Byrne currently has 3,622 assists in her career as a Beaver and needs 105 more to become the Minot State all-time leader in the assists category.