MINOT, N.D.- The Minot State women's volleyball team (0-13, 0-6 NSIC) will take to the road to look to secure their first win of the season. The Beavers start the weekend off with a matchup against the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks (2-12, 1-5 NSIC) Friday night in Mankato, Minn. with tip off set for 6 p.m. The Beavers will wrap up their weekend playing the standard of NCAA division two volleyball in the third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears (12-2, 5-1 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. in St. Paul, Minn. The Beavers will then head back to North Dakota for an interstate showdown against rival the Mary Marauders (2-12, 1-5 NSIC) down in Bismarck on Tuesday Oct. 4th with tip off set for 6 p.m.

MSU-Mankato is coming off of a 1-1 weekend on the road, as they nabbed their first conference win on the season at MSU-Moorhead in a five-set thriller 3-2. The Mavericks then battled but fell against a good Northern State team 3-1. While the season might not have been exactly what the Mavericks were envisioning, but that doesn't mean that it hasn't had its own successes. The Mavs have cumulated 643 kills on the season while averaging 11.9 kills per set. MSUM has 57 service aces on the year and has an impressive 120 blocks on the year. The offense has run through junior Sophie Tietz who has nailed 119 kills on the year, a team best, followed closely behind by sophomore Kiya Durant who has 102 kills. Two different Mavericks lead the team in service aces with nine apiece, junior Makayla Snow and sophomore Toryn Richards. Senior Brenna Hesse has 119 digs for the Mavericks while Durant has been a defensive monster around the net as she has 64 blocks on the year, 12 solo. 

The Golden Bears weren't messing around going for a straight 3-0 sweep against both the Dragons and the Wolves. CSP has garnered 744 kills so far this year while averaging 15.2 kills per set. The Golden Bears are very tactical when serving having recorded 92 service aces to go along with the stellar defense that's contributed 756 digs, and 97 blocks on the year. Junior Jasmine Mulvihill leads the offensive charge with an impressive 223 kills, trailed by sophomore Sophia Andersen with 152 kills, then three more Golden Bears with over 100 kills on the year. Four different Golden Bears have over 10 service aces as freshman Ellie Sieling leads all of CSP with 20, followed closely behind with 18 is sophomore Emma Schmidt. Four different Golden Bears have over 100 digs on the year with a tie for first at 170 apiece is Sieling and Schmidt. Katie Mattson leads the blocking category for CSP as she has recorded 46 blocks on the year. 

UMary suffered the same fate as the Beavers last weekend getting swept 3-0 by both the Winona State Warriors and Upper Iowa Peacocks at home. The Marauders have been able to get 462 kills on the year for 9.4 kills per set on average. UMary has 57 aces on the year with 839 digs and 82 blocks. Senior Nehkyah Ellis has been the force of the Marauders offense getting 118 kills who is the only Marauder over 100 kills on the year. Ellis also leads UMary with the most service aces at 12, followed closely behind by sophomore Kaia Sueker with 11. Sueker has the defensive edge for the Marauders as she has 228 digs while sophomore Maddie Cooper leads the team with the most blocks at 40. 

Minot State is coming off back to back 0-3 losses to WSU and UIU at home. However, a different lineup proved to be effective for the Beavers as they played around with the lineup and were making things work. Sophomore Emily Kotelnikoff led the Beaver offense as she gathered a team high for the weekend nine kills against WSU Friday night. Kotelnikoff and Sophomore Paige Ammerman teamed up to make two blocks against the Warriors and sophomore Taylor Wyatt had a solo block, while sophomore Tea Boeckel was a ball magnet getting 14 digs on the night. Ammerman and freshman Viktoria Sedova each had a service ace. 

On Saturday Wyatt led the Beavers with seven kills while sophomore Hailey Wathen was right behind with six. Boeckel and freshman Lucia Mercolini each had a service ace in a hard fought battle against UIU. Wyatt had another solo block to up her total to two on the weekend while Kotelnikoff and sophomore Jenna Pahlen combined for a block as well. Mercolini and Wathen each had nine digs on the day to lead MSU while Boeckel and Kotelnikoff were right behind with eight and seven, respectively. 

Following the instate showdown, the Beavers will head back up to Minot to prepare for a showdown against the 7th ranked team the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs (13-1, 5-1 NSIC) on Friday night Oct. 7th at 7 p.m. The Sioux Falls Cougars (9-4, 5-1 NSIC) will be in town on Saturday to face off aginst MSU with tip off set for 2 p.m. in the MSU Dome.