THIS WEEK
Following a pair of home wins last week the University of Mary volleyball team is back on the road the next two weeks. The Marauders open the 4-game road trip at the University of Sioux Falls on Friday, October 27. Game time is 6 pm. Facing their biggest challenge of the season Saturday, October 28, the Marauders visit #1 Wayne State College in Wayne, NE. The match is set for 3 pm.
 
THE RECORDS
UMary enters the week 7-15 overall and 2-10 in the NSIC... Sioux Falls is 9-12 and 5-7 in the NSIC (T-7^th)… Wayne State is 21-1 and 12-0 (1^st).
 
RANKINGS
Wayne State, the top-ranked team in the AVCA NCAA D2 poll, will be the fifth team the Marauders have faced that is ranked in this week's poll; Concordia-St. Paul (#4), Southwest Minnesota State (#6), St. Cloud State (#9) and Minnesota Duluth (#14).
 
LAST WEEKEND
The Marauders opened with a midweek 3-1 win over Minot State in a non-conference match, giving UMary a season sweep of the two games between the two Highway 83 rivals. Nehkyah Ellis had 15 kills, 12 digs and four aces. Maddie Cooper added 14 kills. Aly Gruber chipped in 12 kills, 15 digs and six assisted blocks. Alexandria Harper posted eight kills and hit .467 with six assisted blocks. Kaia Sueker had 16 digs. Kameron Selvig dished out 48 assists and three kills… UMary completed the week with a 3-0 sweep of Augustana, the first win over for the Marauders over the Vikings in the 22^nd meeting between the two programs. Harper controlled the middle with 10 kills, a .348 attack percentage and six assisted blocks. Ellis added 10 kills. Sueker posted 19 digs. Selvig delivered 31 assists, added three kills and made 13 digs.
 
BLOCK PARTY
The Marauders continue to celebrate success in the middle of the net. UMary is 8th in the conference with 1.94 blocks/set.
 
TWIN TOWERS
Middle hitters Alexandria Harper and Maddie Cooper are among the NSIC leaders in blocks. Harper is 10th with .92 blocks/set. Right behind in 20th is Cooper at .74 b/s. Only eight teams have two players who rank in the top 20 of the conference rankings. 
 
ATTACK
Ally Gruber provides an unrelenting outside attack for the Marauders. The senior from Belgrade, MN, leads the Marauders in kills per set at 2.69 (18th in NSIC) and points per set at 3.15 (18th). She also chips in 2.93 digs per set. Gruber has reached double digits in kills a team-high 11 times this season with a high of 22 in a win over MSU Billings. She has seven double doubles. Gruber led the Marauders with 18 kills in the win at Minot State.
 
DEEEE-FENSE
Kaia Sueker is one of the top liberos in the NSIC. The team leader in digs with 329, the Marshall, MN, averages 4.57 digs per set to rank 7th in the league. She has double digit digs in her last 13 games. For her career Sueker has 1,238 digs.
 
MARAUDERS WATCH

• Maddie Cooper is the Marauders most efficient offensive force. The junior middle hitter from Fargo, ND, is hitting .232 on the season and averages 1.96 kills/set. She had her best night of the season in the win at Minot State, posting 12 kills with no attack errors and a .571 hitting percentage. Cooper is 20th in the NSIC in blocks/set (.73).
• Nehkyah Ellis is having a strong senior season. Eight times she has cracked double figures in kills. The outside hitter is averaging 2.45 kills/set and is hitting a career-high .140. Ellis also averages 2.50 digs/set.
• Kameron Selvig has been solid setting up the Marauders attack this season. The senior setter averages a career-best 7.94 assists/set and had a season-best 48 in the last win over Minot State. She also chips in 2.65 digs/set and 0.34 blocks/set. Selvig went over 1,000 career assists and now sits at 1,490. 
• Alexandria Harper is becoming a force in the middle of the net for the Marauders. The junior had a season-high six blocks in each of the Marauders wins last week over Minot State and Augie. She also had a combined 18 kills in the two matches and just three attack errors. For the year Harper is averaging a team-leading .92 blocks/set and 1.65 kills/set while hitting .191.

 
THE STAFF
Abby Pollart returns for her third season as the head coach of Marauders Volleyball. Joining Pollart also for her third season in the program is Assistant Coach Bree Spenner, as well as Thalianette Garcia in her first season as a Graduate Assistant Coach.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
Both games this weekend will have links to live stats and live video streams which can be found at goumary.com/coverage.
 
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