MINOT, N.D.- The Minot State volleyball team (0-11, 0-4 NSIC) will look to snag their first victory of the season as they head back to the MSU Dome for a pair of challenges from the Winona State Warriors (4-7, 0-4 NSIC) and the Upper Iowa Peacocks (7-4, 1-3 NSIC). The Warriors come to the dome first for a Friday night matchup at 6 p.m. The Beavers then square off against the Peacocks Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. 

The Warriors are coming off of an 0-2 weekend against two ranked teams in 23rd ranked Augustana and 3rd ranked Wayne State, both by matching 3-1 scores. After starting the season ranked, the Warriors have fallen out of expectations and not receiving any votes in this past poll. That's not to say they haven't been successful as they do have 489 kills to the Warrior name while averaging 12.2 kills per set. They also have had 57 service aces and 79.5 blocks on the year. Senior Madison Larson is leading the offensive charge for the Warriors as she has knocked down 145 kills on the year followed by junior Sidney Paulson with 120. Paulson is tied with junior Taylor Pagel for 12 service aces on the year while senior Casey Volkmann has been a one woman wrecking defensive crew racking up 176 digs and senior Mikenna Joerger has racked up 47 blocks on the year. 

The Peacocks are coming off a weekend split against the same two teams. The Peacocks first fell short to WSC 3-1 before roaring back for a ranked home victory against the Vikings by the same 3-1 score. The Peacocks have downed 498 kills and have averaged 11.9 kills per set. UIU has also created 68 service aces, 706 digs, and 73 blocks on the year. Junior Zoe Semelroth has led UIU by a lot with 120 kills for 2.68 kills per set. Semelroth also leads the Peacocks with 13 service aces followed closely by junior Kaci Beesecker and Madelyn Rettler with 12 and 11 each respectively. Beesecker also leads the Peacocks with 170 digs while Semelroth also has the most blocks on the Peacocks with 29 blocks. 

The Beavers are coming off a 0-2 weekend after a thrilling 3-2 setback to Minnesota-Crookston and a 3-0 loss to Bemidji State. The Golden Eagles rallied back to defeat the Beavers in each of the ls two sets to upset the Beavers hopes of their first win of the year. Sophomore Kylie Koontz led the Beavers with 17 kills and along with four blocks. Six different Beavers had a service ace, while Alex Koontz had 19 digs and Taylor Wyatt had six blocks to each lead the Beavers in those respective categories. Against Bemidji State the Beavers were again led by Kylie Koontz with six kills while sophomore Jenna Pahlen was shortly behind with five kills. Sophomore Tea Boeckel was the only MSU Beaver to nab a service ace while freshman Viktoria Sedova was the leader with nine digs. 

Following the brief home stint the Beavers will take to the road once more to eastern Minnesota to face off at the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks on Friday Sept. 30th at 6 p.m. The Beavers will then travel to the twin cities to square off against division two standard the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears on Saturday Oct. 1st at 2 p.m. Then on the following Tuesday (Oct. 4th) the Beavers will travel to arch-rival the UMary Marauders in Bismarck. Start time is set for 6 p.m. at UMary.