THE OPENING SERVE:
After 10 consecutive matches on the road, the #10 UMD volleyball team will be playing in Romano Gymnasium at long last this weekend when they'll host two NSIC foes to continue the blossoming conference season. The Bulldogs' home opener will be against MSU Moorhead on Friday, September 12th at 6:00 p.m. The buses will stay parked on Saturday, September 13th as UMD will stay home to play Northern State at 2:00 p.m.

SCOUTING REPORT ON MSU MOORHEAD:
MSU Moorhead has started out the season by breaking even, sitting at a 5-5 record. Even still, third-year head coach Bob Jones has helped his team string together a mini winning streak when it's mattered most as the Dragons have gone 2-0 to start conference play. Jones and co. are hoping that this is a sign of things to come for a squad that went just 5-15 in NSIC matches this past season in Jones' first year overseeing regular season play. 

Much of the fate of the Dragons' performance throughout their conference slate will fall in the hands of junior Bridget Witzmann. Witzmann leads her team in kills on the season with 129 (3.49 K/S), and when you dig deeper into her stats, this almost feels inevitable. Witzmann is a one-woman barrage of an attacker. She sits at sixth in the NSIC in attacks per set with 9.57 and fourth in the conference in total attacks with 354. This past weekend alone, across just two matches, Witzmann recorded 83 attack attempts. That put her at a rate of 11.86 attacks per set. The main Dragon that will continue to feed Witzmann the ball is freshman Emily Skalicky, who already leads the team in assists through her debut season with 261 (7.05 A/S). 

The star of the Dragons' defense is junior Brooke Walthall, a notable accumulator of digs. Walthall has 151 digs to her name thus far this season, good for 4.31 D/S. She ranks fourth in the conference in both of these values. If it's a block the Dragons are after, senior Elise Bakke has been the person for the job. She has a team-high 29 blocks (0.78 B/S) so far this season. 

SCOUTING REPORT ON NORTHERN STATE:
Northern State is a perennial NSIC success story. Head coach Brent Aldridge is in his 12th season with a program that has enjoyed a 213-91 record under his direction, good for a .701 winning percentage. The Wolves' 2021 record of 18-11 broke a three-year streak in which the team won 20+ matches, including back-to-back NSIC regular season championships in 2018/2019. The team looks like it could get back to their 20-win ways so far this year, kicking off the 2022 campaign 7-3 and a perfect 2-0 in conference play. 

Veteran Wolves lead a steady Northern State offensive attack. On the front lines is graduate student Sally Gaul, who leads the team in kills with 133 (4.29 K/S). The wolves' main distributor is senior Keri Walker with an impressive 340 assists (10.97 A/S). These two co-headline a wolves offense that ranks in the top 50 nationally in assists per set (48th with 12.10) and kills per set (44th with 13.16). This next stat is the one the Bulldogs should really be worried about: the Wolves are among the most efficient bunches in the nation, holding a 10th ranked .283 team hitting percentage. Throughout UMD's undefeated run to start the year, one of their shining qualities has been their ability to put away teams with precision- the Bulldogs themselves are 12th in the country in team efficiency with a .281 percentage. Not yet this season has UMD encountered a team that looks like it can keep pace with them in this regard. This will be an early in-conference test for the Bulldogs' defensive unit.

The Wolves' defense is quarterbacked by sophomore Abby Brooks and her 34 blocks (1.10 B/S), impressive numbers for a player in her first real season of college competition. Junior Madison Langlie leads the way in digs with 125 (4.03 D/S).

THE SERIES:
Historically, everything has come up Bulldogs in meetings against both of this weekend's opponents. In matchups with MSU Moorhead, UMD holds a 64-13 all-time record, the last meeting being a 3-0 road win for the Bulldogs in 2021. UMD holds a 53-5 overall record against Northern State, their last match ending in a 3-1 Bulldogs win, this one also taking place on the road.

LAST TIME OUT:
UMD started their 2022 conference season in dominant fashion with two convincing wins as part of a road trip to North Dakota. The Bulldogs kicked things off with a 3-0 win against Minot State on Friday, September 9 before handling Mary, also in straight sets, on Saturday, September 10.

BITS FROM BOOS:
The Bulldogs may be 2-0 to start NSIC action, but there's still a long, long way to go in conference play. The more time that passes, the more time these 16 teams with have to pick apart each others' play styles. Second meetings are bound to look different from initial encounters. All of this is something head coach Jim Boos understands well. While he doesn't feel as if NSIC season calls for a total revamping of his team's philosophy, he knows that the intricacies of conference competition call for some tweaks when it comes to preparation- particularly on defense. 

"From a defensive standpoint, now's the time where we get a little bit more in depth in terms of understanding what the other side does, what their tendencies are, what their strengths are, who gets the ball in the crunch moments, all the little nuances of how do we defend specific teams," Boos said. 

What you have to understand about this kind of deeper dive come conference time is that it's never just your team that's doing this more elaborate scouting; the entire NSIC is doing it right alongside you. This isn't lost on Boos. 

"We're going to find the same thing, teams are going to understand what we're doing and how we're doing it and when we're doing it, so we're going to have to keep diversifying our offense and looking to get better and better as well," Boos said. "That's what makes it so fun- the level of competition, the quality of teams we get to play is the best way to make sure that happens. You just gotta keep working to get better."

THE BROADCAST:
Follow along with the action of both matches live at these links:
vs. MSU Moorhead (Friday, September 16 at 6:00 p.m.): https://bit.ly/3debe3L
vs. Northern State: (Saturday, September 17 at 2:00 p.m.): https://bit.ly/3r0IZJb

END OF 2022 DIG WATCH:
After entering the season so close to the marker, Madison Gordon finally hit exactly 500 career digs this past weekend by registering six digs across two matches. 

UP NEXT:
The Bulldogs will enjoy more home-cooking next weekend, but it won't be without obstacle. After playing an already-tough Augustana group on Friday, September 23 at 6:00 p.m., the Bulldogs will match up against one of the toughest opponents they could encounter: #3 Wayne State. This battle between the NSIC's finest is set for Saturday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m.