The University of Minnesota Duluth will travel to the other side of the Great Lake to the East of town as they head to the Lake State Classic hosted by Lake Superior State University to take on a pair of teams from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
UMD (0-1) did not get off to the start it wanted in its last trip to the "UP" as the team was knocked off by eighth-ranked Michigan Technological University in its season opener in Houghton last week. This time though, the Bulldogs head to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan where they will tip off the tournament against Northern Michigan University on Saturday night before taking on the host Lakers on Sunday afternoon.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS | 0-2, 0-0 GLIAC
Northern Michigan knocked off another Lake Superior rival, the University of Wisconsin-Superior, 74-54 in exhibition play but has stumbled out of the blocks in the regular season ... the Wildcats fell to Quincy University and Truman State University at the NCAA II Midwest Region challenge last weekend ... freshman center Taylor Hoddell leads Northern Michigan, scoring 11.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game on the year while shooting 43.8 percent ... sophmore guard Anna Liewein is leading the Wildcats with 7.0 boards per outing as well as 4.0 assists ... Northern Michigan has just two seniors on its roster and eight members of its freshman class ... Troy Mattson has led the Wildcats for 11 seasons as of 2015-16 ... NMU leads the all-time series against UMD, 19-16, but the Bulldogs picked up a 63-60 victory last time out on Nov. 13, 2011.
SCOUTING THE LAKERS | 0-2, 0-0 GLIAC
Lake Superior State also suffered a pair of setbacks last weekend against McKendree University and the University of Illinois-Springfield ... the Lakers will play host to Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference foe Minot State University before taking on UMD ... sophmore center Tamara Novac leads the Lakers scoring 9.5 points and grabbing 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 56.3 percent ... freshman guard Valerie Messner is putting up 9.0 points and 2.5 assists per outing ... Lake Superior State also has just a pair of seniors on its roster and six freshmen ... Kristen Rogers is in her second season leading the Lakers ... UMD and LSSU have not met since the 2010-11 season, but the Lakers picked up a 65-54 win to run their record to 4-2 all-time against the Bulldogs.
FREE THROWSUMD had just seven players available as the team hit the court at No. 8 Michigan Tech on Saturday afternoon, falling in the opener ... junior center
Allyson Harris fell one rebound short of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards for the Bulldogs ... jnior point guard
Jenna Orr netted a career-high eight points on Saturday against the Huskies ... first-year head coach
Mandy Pearson will look for her first official victory this weekend, having knocked off Bethel University in a preseason exhibition ... this will be the last non-conference stop for the Bulldogs as they host St. Cloud State University next weekend to start NSIC play.
UP NEXTUMD and Northern Michigan will tip off the weekend on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET in Sault Ste. Marie.
