THE OPENING SERVE:
This UMD volleyball team is no stranger to road trips. The Bulldogs started the year with back-to-back tournament weekends, first in St. Cloud, then in Indianapolis. Two matches a day, Friday and Saturday, for two weeks. This regiment treated UMD pretty well- the team started the year 8-0. 

It's safe to say the Bulldogs wouldn't have had it ny other way when it came to the start of the year. That 8-0 mark was a major building block of an eventual 13-win winning streak, a 25-3 record to finish out the regular season. It's also safe to say UMD is far from satisfied with finding tournament success in the dying days of August or the dawn of September- they'd like to have it in November, too. Seems only fitting to jump back on the bus in pursuit of this. Onwards to St. Paul for the NSIC Tournament.

RANKINGS ROUNDUP:
Not much for counting? You'll enjoy the world of UMD rankings- this team likes to keep its figures low.

Entering tournament weekend, the Bulldogs sit at No. 4 in the AVCA Division II Coaches' Poll. After the preseason poll left UMD with no ranking, the team hasn't gone without one since. In fact, the Bulldogs have maintained poll position in the top-ten since the AVCA's week three poll on September 12. Better yet, UMD hasn't fallen out of the top five since it entered that echelon on October 10. 

It's funny to think of such a major accomplishment as a stepping stone, but on the climb to NCAA Tournament glory, all things are just that. Still, this Bulldogs team is building itself quite the staircase. For two consecutive weeks, UMD was pinned as the No. 3 team in the Central Region. Only fellow NSIC squads Wayne State (No. 1) and Concordia (No. 2) were ranked higher. 

This is all well-and-good, but the ranking that will matter the most to the Bulldogs throughout this weekend is a different No. 3 ranking- their designation in the NSIC Tournament. The Bulldogs tied tournament-host Concordia with a conference record of 17-3 but narrowly lost out on the No. 2 seed due to strength of schedule. Still, landing at three within a field of eight NSIC contemporaries that are by association eight of the toughest teams in the entire country is no small feat.

NO SHORTAGE OF NSIC SUCCESS:
The UMD women's volleyball program has a history of non-small feats. The only thing that's marginal is the amount of time you have to go back to find it.

As recently as 2018, the Bulldogs won the NSIC tournament.  Recent enough, in fact, that some familiar faces in Madison Gordon and Sydney Lanoue were along for the ride. That year, the Bulldogs entered the tournament with a 24-5 record. They would go on to drop a total of just two sets on their road to the conference crown against a slate of Upper Iowa in the first round, Sioux Falls in round two and Southwest Minnesota State (SMSU) in the championship. 

If you liked that, you'll really like hearing about UMD's 2014 campaign. That year, the Bulldogs were nearly unbeatable. UMD had entered the NSIC Tournament as a convincing #1 seed- 28-1 overall, a perfect 20-0 in NSIC play, with their only loss being against a #2 Tampa squad in mid September. After avoiding a first round, five-set scare against Sioux Falls, the Bulldogs dropped just one more set between SMSU and Wayne State to claim their second NSIC tournament title. 

Second because they had one their first just a season before- they must have really enjoyed doing it. UMD's run to the postseason was nearly identical to what it would look like the following year, entering the NSIC Tournament with a 29-2 record and a 19-1 record in conference play. Come tournament time, the Bulldogs left absolutely no doubt that they were the cream of the crop. The Bulldogs swept their way through Sioux Falls and Wayne State for a championship meeting with the Golden Bears. In a Battle of #2 UMD vs #3 Concordia, there wasn't much of a battle at all- UMD busted out the brooms once again to go perfect for the tournament and claim their first NSIC postseason championship.

For as nice as these stories from the past are (and for as little into the past as they are), they're just that: old stories. This year's Bulldogs have vested interest the kind of winning that you'll read about in the paper the next day. Nothing about their play across the season would suggest that they don't have the capacity to do it. 

SCOUTING REPORT ON SIOUX FALLS:
To circle back on stories of the recent past, let's travel back to October 1 of this year.

On that date, a 14-1 UMD squad had made the trek to play 9-5 Sioux Falls. If you were just scrolling through old results online and stumbled across this one, it wouldn't much catch your eye- a 3-0 win for the Bulldogs. Anyone that watch this match as it happened, however, might sing a bit of a different tune. It was about as hard-fought of a sweep as any team could earn for the Bulldogs. The Cougars had been down just 20-16 late in the first, 23-19 in the second (a set they'd led 6-2 at one point), within fingertips of starting a comeback bid down 23-22 in the third. Unfortunately for Sioux Falls, they'd fall just a bit short each time. Even then, the scrappiness of a team that would end the day with a record of 9-6 at the time (5-3 in NSIC play) had to be respected.

What the Cougars would go on to do the rest of the year would affirm that necessity.

Sioux Falls closed out the season on a 9-3 run to finish with an 18-9 record. Even better news for the Cougars- they're going into the conference tournament red-hot. Sioux Falls won six straight matches to close out the year. Included in this run were five-set showdowns against then-No. 5 SMSU and then-No. 2 Concordia. 

Fresh out of their loss to the Bulldogs, the Cougars were still in pretty good standing within the NSIC. Their 5-3 record was good enough to hold the No. 6 spot in a young conference season. In terms of major team stats, the Cougars landed as high as sixth in the NSIC in both kills and assists. They were within the top ten in every field except one: blocking, where they were only No. 12 with a rate of 1.67 block a set

How ironic.

Along the Cougars' 9-3 run, perhaps the most important tool they've employed is the block. Their per-set clip in that arena was at 2.47 during this streak, good for second in the entire conference in that 12-match span.

If you're struggling to quantify this kind of jump, Jordyn Hamm might be able to help. The sophomore middle blocker has been nothing short of electric at the net for the Cougars' during the team's recent success. Across her last 12 matches, Hamm has had 53 total blocks. That's good for a per-set clip of 1.23 by herself. This kind of run was good enough to earn Hamm some national acclaim- she ended the year 44th in the country in total blocks with 104 and 40th in blocks per set with 1.09. 

Even in the midst of all of this work defensively, Hamm's still been able to contribute on the offensive side of the ball. She closes the year with 162 kills on a per-set clip of 1.71, good for fifth on the team in each category. Yes, just fifth- the Cougars are a team with the luxury of having five 100+ kill attackers. Six, actually, including senior Brooklynne Albrecht's 119 (1.35 K/S). Let's go over the rest of the laundry list. In fourth is sophomore Jordan Kuper with 173 kills (2.25 K/S). Third belongs to yet another sophomore in Grace Hanel, who has 176 kills (2.81 K/S). Second place introduces us to the 200+ kill club with Sadie Voss. The freshman sensation has 270 kills on the year (2.81 K/S). Alas, fellow freshman Courtney Holsteen was not to be outdone. Holsteen had nearly cracked 300 kills by the regular season's end, finishing with 291, but she did succeed in breaking 3 kills per set with 3.03.

It's personnel like this that helps to explain how Sioux Fall's offensive statistics have only flourished, even during their weeks-long block party. The Cougars' offense closes the year at 42nd in kills per set with 13.38. What's most concerning is how efficiently Sioux Falls has been able to do it- they're 37th in the country in team hitting percentage at .307. Helping to fuel these numbers has been a pair of Sioux Falls setters that have 1000+ assists between themselves: Elise Gillen and Davis Guetterman. Gillen closed the year with 656 assists (6.69 A/S). Guetterman had 431 (4.54 A/S). Stop me if you've heard this before- both Gillen and Guetterman are freshman. 

One thing's for certain: the Cougars have all of the pieces in place to start an empire. If this young group is already playing as well as it is now, imagine what they'll be like next year, and the year after.... and the year after. The Bulldogs have vested interest in making sure Sioux Falls' rapid ascension hits a bit of a holding pattern on Friday.  


BITS FROM BOOS:
If you're keeping score at home, all three of UMD's NSIC Tournament titles have come with current UMD head coach Jim Boos at the helm.

20 seasons behind the bench, 20 seasons of success. It hasn't just been some standard for Boos' Bulldogs to hope to reach- it's been the reality that they've lived. 

A background like this makes Bulldogs' 10-10 conference effort last year that saw them miss both the NSIC and NCAA Tournaments entirely about as blinding as the sun in a spot in the sky that no sun guard can reach. Even with UMD's 18-11 record overall, the season's conclusion spoiled the rest of the batch. Boos has pitted the effort of this year's team up against that of last year's squad at several check-in points throughout the season, and with the regular season now at a close, the final verdict is one that's no surprise given his past comments: this was quite the rebound. 

"Overall, very happy with how the regular season went," Boos said. "I think if you would have told us at the beginning of the year that you have an option to take a 25-3 record... would you take it? I think we would've taken that. After last year's issues and struggles that we went through, for the most part, things went pretty well and fairly smoothly for us from a health perspective and an availability perspective. Obviously had a lot of close matches throughout the wave- some that went our way, some that didn't. Ultimately, I think we re-established our ability to be a competitive program that's in the mix at both the conference and regional level, which is certainly where we want to be from a program standpoint."

It's always good to hear a coach say nice things about their team. When you hear a coach with Boos' pedigree say nice things about his team, it becomes more than a feel-good moment - what he's highlighting is probably something that should be studied. 

In that way, the 2022-23 UMD offense might just be one for the books. Boos can provide the foreword: 

"In terms of strengths, I think this year, especially in comparison to last year, just getting back to being a little bit more efficient offensively and more terminal offensively where we're back up near the top groups in terms of kills per set and hitting efficiency in the conference and even nationally speaking," Boos said. "I think that's an area (where) we've kind of hung our hat in year's past, and we got back to being a little bit more of that group that we want to be. I think that being able to have five people at any given moment be the go-to instead of just relying on one person to carry us through trouble is certainly one of our strengths."

In light of all of this, much like every incarnation of UMD squad before it, this year's Bulldogs were not without flaw- it's impossible to be. 

The thing is... there been moments this year where this team's been pretty good at making you think that perfection is possible. When the Bulldogs have been at their best, they've looked nearly unbeatable. It may not be totally reasonable to expect this out of the team on a rally-by-rally basis, but for a team like this, the common expectation is for them to play like "a team like this." This introduces what has perhaps been the biggest sticking point for the Bulldogs throughout this season, the one they'll want to try to scrape off heading into postseason play: a lack of total consistency. The Bulldogs are the No. 4 team in the entire country because they can play like the No. 4 team in the country. As the coach, Boos knows better than anyone that his team is able to live up to that moniker night-in and night-out- they just have to deliver.

And it can't just be on the offensive side of the ball, either, as good as that offense is. Especially come tournament time, the Bulldogs will have to find a way to make themselves as well-oiled of a machine as possible on every end of a rally. All things considered, Boos feels as if the best way for his team to prepare for all the different forces his team might face externally is for it to look inward. 

"I think it varies throughout the year- different matchups expose different things. I think ultimately the concern right now is just getting back to playing at the high level that you  know you're capable of. As you ebb-and-flow through a 28-game season, there's going to be times where you think you're playing really well and times where you don't think you're playing as well and then a lot of matches where you're just kind of middling in the muck of a little bit of both. For us to have the best chance to make a run- whether it's at a conference or regional level- I think you're going to have to play at a really high level, you're going to have to be very efficient and terminal offensively, your blocking and defense is going to have to be dialed in. So really, it's not more about one thing, it's about can you just fine-tune everything so that it's all performing at an above-average level. Given certain matchups, maybe you're going to need this more so than that... but for us, we just have to make sure everything's just kind of firing on all cylinders like it has at several times throughout the year, but certainly there's also times when certain things were misfiring, and those are the corrections we're working on."

The Bulldogs hope to be able to employ this thesis in several matches throughout November. Speaking of that... tournament season brings with it a strange conundrum. Not only is the shere amount of matches you'll play undetermined, but who you might play in these already hypothetical matchups is even more of a question mark. Of course, there's a need to focus on the right-now... but what about a potential tomorrow? 

Boos says that in the case of the NSIC Tournament, this guessing-game isn't necessarily as daunting as it may seem. The stakes may be higher, but the opponents are familiar. 

"...the positive of this first tournament here is we've played all these teams because they're all conference opponents, so there's no unknowns," Boos said. "Really, we're just verifying- are they still doing essentially what they did when we played them. Are they still distributing, are they still putting the same personnel out there, all those little minutiae you can start kind of analyzing so that you at least have an understanding of 'no major changes' or 'woah, major change, so if we do play them, we've got to look at this differently.'"

There's no doubt that Boos and company have already started this verification process with Sioux Falls. 

The Cougars' recent success hasn't been lost on Boos, but he already respected them as an opponent long before their 9-3 run. All that kind of stretch has done has affirmed Boos' understanding of the team as one to be reckoned with. Perhaps it just took some time for all of the pieces to really fall into place- it is a young group, after-all. 

"If you looked at their early results, they played some good teams right out of the gate that I think if they played now, maybe those matches go a little bit differently," Boos said.  "As of late, they are very hot from an offensive standpoint. Their kills-per-set number and their hitting efficiency over the course of the last five-six matches here is certainly on the high end. They're coming off of five-set wins over Concordia and Southwest, so you know that they're playing some really good volleyball. I thought they played well when we played them as well, and really that match hinged on just a few points here and there in each of those sets. We're certainly prepared for that type of battle."

Especially offensively, if Boos is seeing shades of his own squad within an opponent, then you know that opponent must be the real deal. That's exactly the case with the Cougars. 

"Similar to us, they've got five players that at any given moment can be the go-to and can be the terminal factor, so it's not like playing a team where really they isolate and focus on one or two main attackers where most of the distribution's going to go," Boos said. "They're a little bit more five-strong. It comes down to who can execute better and get the team uncomfortable and out of system so that you can have a chance to have some easy plays in transition."

It'll be offensive committee vs offensive committee on Friday. Only time will tell which group's presentation will wow enough to push them into Saturday's field. 


THE BROADCAST:
Catch UMD's matchup against Sioux Falls through the link below:
NSIC Tournament Round One: #3 UMD vs #6 Sioux Falls (Friday, November 11 @ 2:30 p.m.): bit.ly/3G4phEP


LAST TIME OUT:
There were chips in the armor exposed throughout that the team certainly focused on buffing out heading into Friday, but the Bulldogs still went a perfect 2-0 last weekend. UMD took a tough 3-1 affair against Mary on Friday before handling Minot State in straight sets on Saturday.


UP NEXT:
Well... we'll see. There's little doubt that the Bulldogs will make the NCAA Tournament field when Selection Sunday rolls around this weekend, but all other details are still question marks. UMD doesn't even know how the NSIC Tournament will treat it just yet. Get back to us on this.