THIS WEEK
The University of Mary volleyball team heads to Minnesota for two matches this weekend. The Marauders will open match play on Friday, October 5, at 6 pm against 3rd ranked Concordia University, St. Paul. UMary will be back in action on Saturday, October 6, at 2 pm against Minnesota State-Mankato
THE RECORD
The Marauders hold a record of 3-14 with an 0-9 record in NSIC play.
LAST TIME OUT
The Marauders dropped both of their home matches last weekend. The first game was against Upper Iowa. The Marauders struggled against the Peacocks falling in three straight sets. UMary came out with great energy in their second match of the weekend against Winona State. The Marauders kept every set close but fell in three sets to the Warriors.
OPPO RESEARCH – Concordia University, St. Paul
Defending national champion Concordia University, St. Paul boasts the nation's 3rd ranked team. The Golden Bears have a 14-3 record while being 8-1 in conference play. The Golden Bears first conference loss came last week to the nations #3 team Northern State in five sets. The team averages a conference leading 15.2 kills per set.
LAST MEETING
The last time the Marauders took on the Golden Bears was at the end of the 2017 season. The Golden Bears took down the Marauders in three straight sets. Natalia Cruz recorded 13 kills in the match.
OPPO RESEARCH – Minnesota State-Mankato
Minnesota State-Mankato comes into the match against the Marauders with a 11-6 record and a 4-5 record in NSIC play. The Mavericks started out the season with a 9-1 record but the difficulty of the NSIC has really shown with the Mavericks being 2-5 since the great start. The last time the Mavericks took the court was against #3 Northern State. MSU was able to take a set against the national powerhouse but fell 3-1.
LAST MEETING
The last time the Marauders and Mavericks faced each other was during the 2017 season for the Marauders senior night. Every match was incredibly close with the point differentials ranging between two and four points. The Marauders were on the losing end of all three sets, getting swept by the Mavericks. Anna Nietfeld had a great game in the last meeting recording eight kills and eight digs. Madison Bergthold recorded a team high of three blocks.Â
"SETTING" UP FOR SUCCESS
The Marauders have introduced a dual attack when it comes to setters. The Marauders have had Brittany Brusven and Sydney Murphy split time the past few matches. Sydney Murphy ranks 12th in the NSIC averaging 7.67 assists per set. Brusven has lead the Marauders in assists the past two games averaging 4.17 assists/set over that period.
"ACE" UP THE SLEEVE
The Marauders rank 6th as a team in service aces in the NSIC. This is in part to having two Marauders ranking highly in the conference for individual service aces. Sydney Murphy ranks 9th with 0.38 aces/set and and Geovana Almeida ranks 15th (0.34). Sydney Murphy has recorded 21 aces on the season. The Marauders have three athletes who have recorded 15 aces, the list includes, Natalia Cruz, Geovana Almeida, and Anna Nietfeld.
NOT IN OUR HOUSE
Blocks is the name of the game for Madison Bergthold. As a team the Marauders rank at the bottom of the NSIC in blocks but as an individual stat line Bergthold ranks top 20 in the conference in this category at 0.76/set.
DIG IT UP, OH, OH
Breanna Donarski is a specialist when it comes to defense for the Marauders. Donarski lead the Marauders in digs both games over the past weekend. The junior libero averages a team-best 2.97 digs/set. Natalia Cruz is in a close second averaging 2.86 digs/set.
ATTACK AND KILL
Morgan Schnabel continues to lead the Marauders in kills despite missing the past few games with an injury, ranking 19th in the NSIC at 2.79 kills/set. Natalia Cruz and Anna Nietfeld have been consistently putting up solid kill totals game in and game out for the Marauders. Natalia Cruz has hit the 100 kills mark on the season with a total of 104, Anna Niefeld is closing in on triple digits with 96. Averaging 1.91 kills/set, Katja Berge is second on the team in the category, only trailing Schnabel.
#Marauders#
