THE OPENING SERVE:
This year's UMD volleyball team has been big on making statements. Need proof? You don't have to go back too far to find it. In less than two weeks' time, the Bulldogs have beaten two top-ten opponents in SMSU and St. Cloud State, each ranked #7 at the time of the respective matchups, in five-set dogfights. In the interim, the Bulldogs were busy beating three other NSIC foes with records above .500 (Sioux Falls, Winona State and Upper Iowa) without dropping a single set to them in the process. 

Statements made, statements heard. 

This week's AVCA Poll propelled the Bulldogs into the top-five for the first time this season. As if they needed another accolade to pair with their 18-1 record, their 10-1 record in conference play, their unblemished record on the road.  At this point, why not keep going? Why not continue to stockpile achievements? 

That's the spirit! Glad we're all on board, because this weekend will give the Bulldogs the opportunity to do just that. The Road Warriors of UMD will put that moniker to the test once again with a pair of stops in Minnesota, first in Mankato on Friday (6:00 p.m.) to take on a Minnesota State team that will be intent on blocking the Bulldogs' path towards sustained success. Even if the Bulldogs can maneuver their way around this barricade, an even bigger one will sit not far behind in St. Paul on Saturday (5:00 p.m.). There, UMD will face its second top-five opponent of the season in the form of a third-ranked Concordia-St. Paul squad that's earned every part of that "golden" title this season.

SCOUTING REPORT ON MINNESOTA STATE:
All things considered, the Mavericks are having a season that they'll likely look to forget. Second-year head coach Corey Phelps and company are off to a 6-13 start overall. To give credit where credit's due, though, Minnesota State has hung tough with the rest of their highly-touted conference contemporaries, holding a more presentable 5-6 record in NSIC play. This leaves them tied for seventh in the conference and keeps their hopes at an NSIC tournament bid alive, but they'll have to be on their best behavior moving forward to pull that off. In pursuit of this, the Mavericks would be wise to embrace their niche. 

Everyone has a niche. Maybe it's thrift shopping. Perhaps it's stamp collecting. For the Minnesota State Mavericks, it's blocking volleyballs. 

The Mavericks fall outside of the top 100 in national statistical rankings more often than they crack it. Even still, a few figures jump out from the rest. Minnesota State is 47th in the country in both blocks per set with 2.18 and total blocks with 155 (which is second in the NSIC). No team wants their opponents to get a clean attack over the net, but the Mavericks really, really don't want it- and they've shown that they're good at preventing it. 

One player in particular has been a standout in this arena: Kiya Durant. The sophomore has amassed 76 blocks so far this season, good for 1.09 blocks per set. Durant cracks the top 50 nationally in both of these figures, sitting at 49th for blocks per set and 40th (fourth in the NSIC) in total blocks

UMD head coach Jim Boos has the same road map at his disposal- he knows the turbulence that lies ahead. How does he plan to face it? By imploring his team to stick to its guns, both from a technical standpoint and a mental one.

"I think (Minnesota State's) blocking success comes from a few things," Boos said. "They're physical- they've got a bunch of physical kids, Kiya Durant certainly being one of them. I think they serve pretty aggressively as well, and that puts you as a hitter in a tougher spot because maybe it eliminates the ability to set an additional hitter or two which allows them to key on specific hitters... Staying in system so you can stress that block a little bit more with both tempo and moving the ball around to different hitters is really important in that scenario. And just understanding they may get some along the way- you just have to ride the storm out and stay the course in terms of what you're trying to get done and keep working through those moments. It's no different than hitting it out of bounds;  it's one point, and you've got to move forward."

Of course, Durant isn't the only Maverick on the court, and blocking isn't the only thing that the team at-large does. Players like senior Brenna Hesse round out Minnesota State's defense, Hesse leading the team in digs with 157 (3.02 D/S). Offensively, junior Sophie Tietz is the player to watch for. She has a team-high 162 kills (2.28 K/S). The Maverick most tasked with setting the ball is sophomore Brooke Bolwerk, who has 449 assists (6.60 A/S) to show for it. If the Bulldogs focus too hard on working around the block, it will be players like this that will make them regret it. 

SCOUTING REPORT ON CONCORDIA-ST. PAUL:
Keep that word in mind: focus. Focus is a force that gives and takes. Sometimes it's hard to focus when you need to. Other times, the exact opposite is true, and you find yourself fixating on something when you should be looking at the bigger picture. The key is to find a balance- much easier said than done, obviously.

Concordia-St. Paul is the ultimate put-up-or-shut-up test for a squad's focus. 

There are more accolades surrounding this program than can be believed. The Golden Bears won nine NCAA titles across eleven seasons, including seven in a row from 2007 to 2013. They're still head manned by the coach that won them all: Brady Starkey. In the midst of his 20th season, Starkey currently holds an overall winning percentage of .885. That's the best figure for any volleyball coach at any level of NCAA play with at least ten years of coaching experience- ever. He's certainly not a three-time AVCA Coach of the Year and six-time NSIC Coach of the Year for nothing. Not that it's really necessary, but want to hear more? In what has historically been a very difficult conference, the Golden Bears have come out on top 14 total times. Not only that, but in six of those efforts, they went undefeated across conference play. Only all of this could make Concordia's 17-2 start to the season (their only losses being to still-unbeaten Wayne State) look like an ordinary offering. 

Here's a question: how much of this is relevant to Saturday? The answer is none of it.

Spectacle is an inseparable part of sports, and teams like Concordia can always be relied upon to supply it in spades. Storied histories of success make blue-bloods like the Golden Bears teams to be respected, to be feared, to be loved or hated- for fans, at least. What will make Concordia an opponent for UMD on Saturday is that they will be the team the Bulldogs are playing. They'll be no different in that way than any team the Bulldogs have faced all year. Not all opponents have the glossy backdrop of Concordia, but they do all have some things in common. They all have certain play styles, certain tendencies, certain philosophies. Maybe some are more similar than others, maybe some are totally out of left field, but the fact remains that there exists a book on every team which can be studied, can be focused on. Some of these books will no doubt be more jarring than others, and good teams might have that trait in common. Concordia's might be a scary read, but it's a necessary one. So, let's shed the spectacle. Let's avoid the mistake of making this into a story rather than a match, a mistake that was perhaps made leading up to the Bulldogs' previous top-five matchup against #1 Wayne State (guilty). Let's settle in on analyzing Concordia as a collective team of mere mortals.

First thing's first: what makes Concordia Concordia? How do they play, and what kinds of things do you have to do to stop it? Boos provided some insight.

"Just a good overall volleyball team, that's what that program has been for a long time," Boos said. "They control the ball well, they serve tough, they have five different attackers who can terminate and a setter who can distribute very well. They're a very terminal team, and certainly it presents a challenge for you. I don't think the formula is going to be particularly different than it is against other high-quality opponents like St. Cloud and Southwest and some others that we've played. You've got to serve tough and try to make them uncomfortable, you've got to try to handle their tough serving and play in system, and how the match turns out is going to be based on who does that better that evening. Both teams have offenses that can be high level and be very terminal, but both defenses can give the other side trouble as well. That's what makes matchups like this fun from a spectator standpoint and gives you a little bit of heartburn as a coaching staff because you realize the challenges ahead."

Ah, to be a spectator. Alas, this isn't a luxury the Bulldogs can afford. Still, there are similarities to be had between the approaches of certain fans and a coaching staff. Dedicated sports buffs might perform deep-dives into the stats of opposing teams and end up with mental stat sheets not unlike those coaches have in front of them in-print. If we were to run a copy of one of these off for ourselves for Concordia, these would be the figures that would jump off of the page from a team stats perspective. Again, no smoke and mirrors this time- just the 1s and 0s:

-15.25 kills per set (1st in NCAA)
-0.302 hitting percentage (1st in NCAA)
-14.39 assists per set (1st in NCAA)

Members of Bulldog Country might see these numbers and scoff, daydream about how UMD will be able to handle such a test. Then, they'll go to class or turn on the TV and forget all about it within an hour. This is where the similarities between fan and coach end- none of UMD's coaching staff will have this same opportunity throughout the week. Boos and company will be tasked with putting together a workable strategy for their Bulldogs to actually play the team behind these numbers. 

The logical next step in that process would be to shift focus to the individual Golden Bears that make these kinds of stats possible. Let's get the skinny on the cream of the crop in Concordia, the players the Bulldogs will have to make special note of pin-pointing:

-Jasmine Mulvihill (junior): 282 total kills (19th), 4.55 K/S (5th)
-Teagan Starkey (senior): 666 total assists (t40th), 13.06 A/S (1st)

Yeah, that checks out. High-flying players are leading a high-flying offense. Obviously, though, two players a team does not make. Mulvihill and Starkey are the figureheads of an offensive unit that wouldn't have gotten this far without each other. While it was important to identify them as such, it's equally as important to be able to shift the field of view back again to fit the entire team within it. Boos understands this, but he's equally aware that it's tough to pull off in-practice.

"The challenge is you know Mulvihill is a key for them," Boos said. "They're going to get her the ball a ton, and she's extremely terminal, extremely talented, so you're doing your best to try to slow her down. At the same point in time, the other four (attackers) are really good as well. You're not leading the country in assists per set (like Starkey) because you're only setting one player. That player, even if they're killing the ball 5/6 kills a set, to get to 13, there's 7 other kills in there that you're missing. The challenge becomes trying to slow down someone who you know is going to be that impactful while also not completely ignoring the other players because you know how good they are as well and how good the setter is at distributing the ball and keeping them in system, keeping them comfortable. It's the ultimate challenge. It's what makes it fun from a spectator standpoint but challenging from a coaching standpoint, for sure."

Things don't become rosier when you remember that Concordia has a defense, too. Here's how its leaders stack up:

-Emma Schmidt (sophomore): 205 digs, 3.36 D/S
-Ellie Sieling (freshman): 210 digs, 3.33 D/S
-Katie Mattson (junior): 53 blocks, 0.90 B/S

No crazy national rankings there, but when you have an offense like Concordia has, if you can play even a complementary level of defense, you'll be fine. Even still, the moment that you look at a defense like this as nothing but complementary is the moment that it bites you. 

All of this is a lot for the Bulldogs to consider. Still, something else they should consider is this: despite this entire multi-step breakdown of Concordia and all that it revealed, the Golden Bears are just another team. This will be just another Saturday match day just like all others before it. Is Concordia a good team? Of course, but the "good" part of that phrase doesn't eliminate the word that comes after it, the word that levels all programs within the top-25, the NSIC, the entire sport. The higher seed doesn't start the match with any legacy points on the scoreboard. With this in mind, the Bulldogs will be looking to earn an early lead the right way: through their play.


THE SERIES:
We may have just gotten out of a spiel detailing the irrelevance of historical figures like this, but for the sake of consistency, humor the existence of this section. All-time, the Bulldogs hold a 52-18 series lead over Minnesota State, UMD prevailing 3-0 in the team's last match-up in 2021. In Concordia, the Bulldogs run into a problem they haven't faced throughout all of NSIC conference play: an all-time stalemate. The series between UMD and the Golden Bears currently sits at 28-28 after Concordia leveled the score with a 3-2 win in the last match between the two teams last year. Not that it's important, but that means Saturday's match will break that tie.

THE BROADCAST:
Follow along with the action from both matches live through the NSIC Network at the links below:

vs Minnesota State (Friday, October 14 @ 6:00 p.m.): bit.ly/3Ct54oW
vs Concordia-St. Paul (Saturday, October 15 @ 5:00 p.m.): bit.ly/3Vmm09d

LAST TIME OUT:
The Bulldogs did some house-keeping this past weekend with 3-0 sweeps of both Winona State and Upper Iowa. This improved the Bulldogs' home record to 5-1 on the year. Not only that, but UMD has dropped just three sets all year in Romano.

UP NEXT: 
The Bulldogs will get a chance to defend both home court and their role as road warriors next week. The festivities will begin with a rare Thursday matchup in Romano against Minnesota Crookston on October 20 at 6:00 p.m. The Bulldogs will then head out for an abridged road trip to face Bemidji State on Saturday, October 22 at 4:00 p.m.