THE OPENING SERVE:

The No. 22 UMD Bulldogs will host Minnesota State - Mankato and Concordia, St. Paul. The Bulldogs will host the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks on Friday at 6:00 PM. UMD will then host the Concordia St. Paul Golden Bears on Saturday at 2:00 PM.

SCOUTING REPORT ON MINNESOTA STATE-MANKATO:

The Mavericks come into this matchup with a 8-5 overall record and a 3-2 conference record. Minnesota State-Mankato suffered loses to Northern State and Winona State while beating Minot State, MSU Moorhead and Mary.

The Mavericks are led by Mariah Edgington who is averaging 2.96 kills per set to lead the team. Minnesota State-Mankato is also led by Brooke Bolwerk and Dana Schindler who are averaging 5.11 and 4.71 assists per set respectively. The Mavericks are led by Corey Phelps who is in his first season as Head Coach. Phelps was a assistant coach with the Mavericks before becoming the interim head coach and later the full time head coach.

SCOUTING REPORT ON CONCORDIA, ST.-PAUL:

The Concordia, St.-Paul Golden Bears come into this matchup ranked No. 4 in the country with a 11-2 overall record and a 5-0 record in conference. Their two loses came against MSU Denver and Angelo State (Texas) in the Colorado Premier Challenge.

Concordia, St.-Paul is led by Jasmine Mulvihill who leads the team with 3.90 kills per set. They are also led by Ellie Veldman who is averaging 10.45 assists per set. The Golden Bears are led by head coach Brady Starkey, who is in his 19th season with the team. Starkey has won 9 NCAA championships with the team, the last one coming in 2017.

THE SERIES:

UMD currently holds an impressive 51-18 record over Minnesota State Mankato. The last matchup occurred on November 9, 2019 when the Bulldogs won 3-0.

The Bulldogs currently hold a 28-27 series lead against the Golden Bears. This matchup has been one of the tightest matchups throughout not only the NSIC, but the country as teams have faced off during the regular season, NSIC tournament, and the NCAA tournament. The last matchup between the teams occurred during the NCAA tournament as the Golden Bears won 3-0 on December 5, 2019. 

WELL SERVED:

The Bulldogs and Golden Bears rank towards the top of the NSIC in service aces. Currently, Concordia is 3rd in the conference with 1.88 service aces per set while the Bulldogs are 5th with 1.66 service aces per set.

LEADING THE PACK:

Minnesota Duluth Sophomore Outside Hitter Cianna Selbitschka is currently tied for the NSIC lead in total kills (210) and is second in kills per set (4.20). Selbitschka also currently ranks first in total service aces (24) and second in service aces per set (0.48). She also leads the NSIC in total points (244.5) and secodn in points per set (4.89).

Bulldogs Sophomore Grace Daak currently leads the NSIC with 63 total blocks and is second with 1.26 blocks per set.

Senior  Sydney Lanoue is currently fourth in the conference in total digs (219) and sixth in digs per set (4.38).

Redshirt Junior Madison Gordon currently has the third most assists (528) and is sixth in assists per set with 10.56.

THE BROADCAST:

You can find a live stream for both games here: https://nsicnetwork.com/umdbulldogs/

You can find the live stats for both games here: https://umdbulldogs.com/sidearmstats/wvball/summary

Both games will also be on My9 Sports.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Bulldogs traveled to face Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State. Both matches turned out to be exciting and highly competitive matches. The Bulldogs were able to come back down 2-1 to win in five sets 3-2. UMD would fall behind early to SMSU 0-2 but would be able to battle back to force a fifth set before losing in the fifth set 2-3.


UP NEXT: The Bulldogs will continue conference play as they will travel to face off against #11 Winona State on October 8th at 7:00 PM. The Bulldogs will continue on the road as they will also travel to Upper Iowa at 2:00 PM on October 9th.