THIS WEEK
The University of Mary volleyball team wraps up the last weekend of the 2023-24 season with a pair of home matches. The Marauders first host the University of Minnesota Crookston on Friday, November 10, for Staff and Faculty Appreciation Night at 6 pm. The season finale and Marauders Senior Day is set for 2 pm on Saturday, November 11, against Bemidji State University.
 
FACULTY AND STAFF APPRECIATION NIGHT
University of Mary faculty and staff will be honored prior to the Marauders game on Friday, November 10.
 
SENIOR DAY
The Marauders will honor seven seniors following their final match at the University of Mary on Saturday, November 11. The honored seniors are Nehkyah Ellis (#2 OH, Central Pointe, OR), Emily Torborg (#5, MH, Lakeville, MN), Ally Gruber (#6 OH, Belgrade, MN), Kameron Selvig (#7 S, Jamestown, MN), Olivia Dickerson (#11, RS/OH, Bismarck, ND), Emily Baumstarck (#12, RS/OH, Worland, WY) and Alexandria Harper (#18, MH, Las Vegas, NV).  
 
THE RECORDS
UMary enters the final weekend 8-18 overall and 3-13 in the NSIC (12th)... Minnesota Crookston is 3-21 and 1-15 in the NSIC (14th)... Bemidji State is 8-16 and 5-11 (11th). 
 
WINS
The eight wins is the most by the Marauders since posting eight in 2017.  
 
LAST WEEKEND
The Marauders earned a split on their final road trip of the season… Ally Gruber posted nine kills for UMary in a 3-0 loss to #6 St. Cloud State… The Marauders closed the weekend with a 3-2 (25-20, 16-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-9) win at Minnesota State, UMary's first win over the Mavericks in the 21st meeting between the two programs. Maddie Cooper led the Marauders with 14 kills. She had 4 blocks and hit .344. Alexandria Harper added 8 kills, had four blocks and hit .400. Nehkyah Ellis added 11 kills, 10 digs and five aces. Kaia Sueker had 31 digs. Kameron Selvig dished out 40 assists, made seven digs and added four kills in five attacks.
 
FIRSTS
For the second time this season the Marauders have defeated a Northern Sun opponent for the first time. UMary swept Augustana in three sets for the first win in 22 meetings. Last Saturday the Marauders downed Minnesota State in five sets for the first win over the Mavericks in 21 meetings.
 
RANKINGS
The Marauders have played six matches against teams currently ranked in the latest AVCA NCAA D2 poll:  Wayne State College (#1), Concordia-St. Paul (#4), Southwest Minnesota State (#6), twice vs. St. Cloud State (#9) and Minnesota Duluth (#14).
 
BLOCK PARTY
The Marauders continue to celebrate success in the middle of the net. UMary is 9th in the conference with 1.90 blocks/set.
 
TWIN TOWERS
Middle hitters Alexandria Harper and Maddie Cooper are among the NSIC leaders in blocks. Harper is 14th with .90 blocks/set. Right behind in 19th is Cooper at .75 b/s. Only eight teams have two players who rank in the top 20 of the conference rankings just nine teams are represented… Offensively Cooper is hitting .214 and averages 1.95 kills/set. Harper is hitting .199 and averages 1.6 kills/set.
 
ATTACK
Ally Gruber provides an unrelenting outside attack for the Marauders. The senior from Belgrade, MN, leads the Marauders in kills per set at 2.55 and points per set at 3.01. 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 403, the Marshall, MN, averages 4.63 digs per set to rank 7th in the league. She has double digit digs in 16 of her last 17 games. Her double digit games streak ended at 14 when she was limited to nine at #1 Wayne State. For her career Sueker has 1,312 digs.
 
MARAUDERS WATCH

• Maddie Cooper is the Marauders most efficient offensive force. The junior middle hitter from Fargo, ND, is hitting a team-best .214 on the season and averages 1.95 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 19th in the NSIC in blocks/set (.75).
• Nehkyah Ellis is having a strong senior season. Ten times she has cracked double figures in kills. The outside hitter is averaging 2.39 kills/set and is hitting a career-high .133. Ellis also averages 2.41 digs/set.
• Kameron Selvig has been solid setting up the Marauders attack this season. The senior setter averages a career-best 7.68 assists/set and had a season-best 48 in the second win over Minot State. She also chips in 2.66 digs/set and 0.33 blocks/set. Selvig went over 1,500 career assists and now sits at 1,585.
• Alexandria Harper is 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 over Minot State and Augie with a combined 18 kills in the two matches and just three attack errors. For the year Harper is averaging a team-leading .94 blocks/set and 1.60 kills/set while hitting .199.

 
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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