With a win in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season finale, the University of Minnesota Duluth enters the 2015-16 NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament with a bit of momentum but a tough task ahead of it -- a rematch with the University of Sioux Falls (R.V.) on the road in the opening round.

UMD (7-18, 7-15 NSIC, 7th North) will look to secure an upset over the second-seeded Cougars and stay in town for the rest of the week, with the remainder of the tournament taking place at Sioux Falls' Sanford Center. The winner between the Bulldogs and USF will take on the winner of North third seed University of Minnesota Crookston against South sixth seed Minnesota State University Mankato in the quarterfinal round on Sunday afternoon.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS | 23-5, 17-5 NSIC, 2nd North
Sioux Falls (R.V.) swept its final weekend road trip against Minnesota State and Concordia University, St. Paul, winning two straight and 10 of its last 11 outings .... the Cougars defeated UMD 82-53 in the teams' only meeting on January 29 at Romano Gym ... senior guard Taylor Varsho is currently second in the NSIC in scoring, averaging 18.5 points per game on the year. She netted a game-high 25 points against the Bulldogs hitting 7-of-14 three-pointers and 9-of-16 field goals ... senior forward Teagan Molden scored 14 points and averages 9.4 points per game on the season ... USF ranked third in the NSIC regular season averaging 73.9 points per game (just 0.2 points off the pace for best) ... head coach Travis Traphagen is in his eighth season on the Cougars' bench ... UMD is 2-2 all-time against Sioux Falls including the defeat this season.

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