THIS WEEK: Minot State returns home for a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference games, finishing off a stretch of ranked opponents with No. 25 Winona State Friday and Upper Iowa Saturday. The WSU match will be the fifth straight against a team either ranked or receiving votes in the national poll for the Beavers.

DIG PINK: This weekend Minot State will take on Winona State and Upper Iowa on Friday, October 16 at 7 p.m. and Upper Iowa on Saturday, October 18 at 4 p.m. During these matches the Beavers will sport pink jerseys and help raise fund for the Trinity CancerCare Center and Lynda Bertsch, Director of the MSU Student Success Center.

RECORDS: Minot State (3-13, 0-9) went 0-2 last week in games against Mankato and No. 3 Concordia, St. Paul. No. 25 Winona State (9-7, 3-6) split games last weekend with a win against MSU Moorhead and a loss against Northern State. Upper Iowa (9-9, 3-6) also split games with the same teams as Winona State.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State head coach Ben Kaszeta is in his first season at the front of the Beaver volleyball program. Kaszeta worked previously as an assistant for Terry Gamble at Jacksonville State in 2014 and McNeese State in 2013. Prior to his work under Gamble, Kaszeta was the head coach at NCAA Division II Lake Superior State from 2010-2012. He has been coaching since 2007 when he started his coaching career at Mott Community College. Joe Getzin is in his second season as the head coach of Winona State. Getzin had a successful first season leading his team to a 19-8 record and its best win percentage (.703) since 1990. Before joining WSU, Getzin spent 12 years as the head coach of Ole Miss. In his 12 seasons he led his team to three appearances in the NCAA Tournament and earn SEC Coach of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007. Aaron Nelson is in his fourth season as the head coach of Upper Iowa. No stranger to the NSIC, Nelson was an assistant coach at Concordia, St. Paul in 2010 when they won a national championship. Prior to that he was an assistant with St. Cloud State and served as the interim head coach for five months. He has also served as an assistant with Minnesota, Crookston.

RANKINGS: Winona State was voted the No. 25 team in the October 12 American Volleyball Coaches' Association Poll. Minot State and Upper Iowa did not received any votes.

SERIES HISTORY: The Beavers have not seen much success against Winona State and Upper Iowa. Winona State and Upper Iowa both lead their series with Minot State 3-1.

LAST TIME OUT: In the final game of the season last year Minot State was able to secure its first win over Winona State with a 3-1 victory. Despite the Warriors out striking the Beavers 61 kills to 58, Minot State was able to limit errors by committing 11 fewer than WSU. MSU was coming off of a 3-1 win against Upper Iowa last season before they played Winona State, but have since seen the Peacocks outside of conference play. In the beginning of the year the Beavers traveled to Fayette, Iowa for a tournament and fell in four sets to UIU.  

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State is coming home after a tough road stretch where three out of the four it played received votes in the AVCA Poll, including a No. 1 and No. 3 team. Having yet to win a conference game the Beavers will be looking to get their first win in the NSIC as well as their first home win. Having played Upper Iowa earlier this season MSU will look to take advantage of things it observed earlier in the year.

NOTING THE WARRIORS: Despite being 3-6 in conference play Winona State has still received enough votes from the AVCA to find it in the top 25. The Warriors have seen success on both offense and defense ranking fourth in the NSIC in kills (14.27) and digs (16.25) per game. The standout for WSU is sophomore Taylor Goar. Goar is a top five player in the NSIC in the categories of kills per game (3.96), aces per game (0.34) and points per game (4.45).

NOTING THE PEACOCKS: Upper Iowa has been able succeed in some areas and not succeed in others leading it to a .500 record. On defense the Peacocks have the least amount of blocks in the NSIC (83), but have the second most digs in the conference (1,092). Senior Jennifer Mundt is second in the league with 4.3 kills per game and leads the conference in total kills (288).

FRESHMEN PHENOMS: Freshmen Logan Desorcy (L, St. Andrews, Manitoba) and Kelsey Dewulf (S, Huntley, Ill.) have both seen early success in their debut seasons. Dewulf leads all freshmen in the NSIC in assists per game with 9.11 while Desorcy is second in NSIC freshmen rankings with 3.61 digs per game. Dewulf's performance has also been good enough to rank in the top ten in the conference.

HOME SWEET HOME: The Beavers have played four total home games this season, including two games that went to five sets. Despite not being able to walk off the court with a win there have been good performances from players like Shaunessy Dauwalder (Stanley, N.D.). In the four home games played Dauwalder has finished with kills totals of 9, 7, 10 and 7 averaging 8.25 kills per match. Matching her success offensively, her defensive performance has been solid as well finishing with seven blocks in the first home game and three blocks in each of the next three.

BY THE NUMBERS

.150: Hitting percentage the Beavers have finished higher than in a match only four times in conference play this season. Two of those performances came last weekend against Minnesota State (.159) and No. 3 Concordia, St. Paul (.157).

11: Kills Taylor Butters (OH, Jr., Spokane Valley, Wash.) tallied against Minnesota State. That marks her best kills total in a conference game throughout her career.

16: Aces served by senior Tarah Dabovich (MH, Phoenix, Ariz.) so far this season. That mark leads the team. It is also the amount of serving errors she has.