THE OPENING SERVE: 
The ninth-ranked UMD volleyball team has seen it all in their 12 matches so far this season. They've traveled far and wide for tournament action featuring unfamiliar foes. They've survived a trip out to North Dakota for a pair of true road matches. They've taken care of business at home. They've dominated, they've faltered, they've been pushed to the brink- you name it, and the box has likely been checked. One of the boxes still left unfilled is often nothing more than an extraneous one, one placed on the list just in case. Few teams check it every year, some with excitement, some with dread. It is a task with an equal notoriety across all sports, an opportunity universally respected. Sometimes, it's a chance for a program that falls outside of the national spotlight to really make a name for itself. For others, for teams like the Bulldogs, it's the ultimate way to show that your squad really is that good. Next to that unchecked box reads "play the #1 team in the nation." With Wayne State coming to town on Saturday, September 24th (2:00 p.m), there are three days until we have to bust out a pen. 

Not so fast, though- they may not be at the top of the food chain, but Augustana, the Bulldogs' opponent for Pack the Gym Night on Friday, September 23rd (6:00 p.m), is still a member to be feared.

SCOUTING REPORT ON AUGUSTANA: 
When looking ahead at a weekend like this, it's easy to become totally fixated on that #1 in front of Wayne State's name. Maybe for the common man, but not for UMD head coach Jim Boos. Boos is being sure to give Augustana their due credit as a major threat in their own right. He views the club as a well-oiled machine that has dangerous pieces spread all across the court. 

"Augustana runs a pretty hectic, everybody-involved offense because of their senior setter," Boos said. "She's about as dynamic as they come, and then they've got some hammers on the outside. Their new right side is extremely physical, and their middles always find ways to score, and they defend really well. Just that stress on Friday night is first and foremost on my brain, not even really thinking ahead to Saturday."

Let's take this quote into the shop and look at its parts one by one, starting with the setter. Avery Thorson has a cool 467 assists on the year, good for 9.94 assists per set. She's coming off of consecutive 1000+ assist seasons and is poised to cross that plateau once again. She currently sits at 23rd in the country in total assists.

Those outside hammer-hitters? Seniors Kate Reimann and Maddy Guetter. Reimann leads the Vikings in kills with 143 (3.04 K/S), Guetter not far behind with 139 of her own (2.96 K/S). Another note about Guetter: she's tied for 27th in the country in service aces with 26. The team's right side hitter? Funny you should mention her- her name is Kia Kriener, and she sits at third on the team in kills with 129 (2.74 K/S). 

Boos mentioned offense when it came to the Vikings' middle hitters, and he isn't wrong to respect them as potential scoring threats. Junior Jolie Stecher has 80 kills (1.70 K/S), her partner down the middle in Piper Asche having 77 (1.64 K/S). Particularly with Asche, though, defensive capability is also a major threat. Asche leads the team with 51 blocks (1.09 B/S).

It's important to show some love to Augustana's libero, senior Erika Bute. There's little doubt that Bute has a nose for the ball. She sits at 22nd in the country in total digs with 245 and 21st in digs per set with 5.21. She leads the NSIC in both of these categories. 

 It's stats like those that help to inform the team's #24 ranking in opponent hitting percentage, their foes hitting an average of just 0.125 against them.

Two things about this team, and you probably noticed the first one already. The Vikings are a seasoned, battle-tested group of veterans. It's as if they're taking up the role of their team's mascot themselves by committee. All but one of the team's core starters are seniors. Here's something you couldn't have known- besides Ellie Walker, a freshman who's seen action in 10 sets so far this year, every player that's touched the court for this Vikings team all season has already been named. Several other Vikings exist on the roster, but their call to action has not yet come. This program is currently winning and losing and the hands of its strongest of soldiers. The future is the future- this season is now. This group is all together now. The Vikings are trying to make the most of the now.

They've done a pretty good job of that so far. Augustana sits at 10-2 on the year. They sat at #23 in the country in last week's AVCA Poll before another weekend split in NSIC action dropped them to 2-2 in conference play and out of the rankings. The Vikings are hoping to look back on this as nothing but a hiccup. 

It'll be the job of sixth-year head coach Jennifer Jones to help right the ship back towards a national ranking. Jacobs has gone 82-50 in her tenure with the Vikings thus far, but she's currently in the middle of her team's most successful start with her at the helm. Friday will be a tough obstacle in the way of continuing this pace, just as it will be a major test for the Bulldogs in their quest to further scale the top 10. 

SCOUTING REPORT ON WAYNE STATE:
It's not as difficult to cover the #1 team in the entire country in a preview as it is to face them on the court... but it may be close. This Wildcats group is a rabbit hole that feels like it never ends. The whole way down, you're greeted by accolade after accolade, standout after standout. Sticking to the traditional preview formula will only get us so far, but it's at least a good place to start.

Even at a surface level, Wayne State's offense is quite a marvel. There are three core switches within the Wildcats' attack. We won't fully understand all the things that flipping these switches do until later, but each of them have the same core function: generating kills. The first switch to the left is sophomore Taya Beller. She has 185 kills on the year- that's 20th-best in the country. Her rate of 3.94 kills per set is 27th in the nation. Next is junior Kelsie Cada. Cada has 173 kills of her own (31st in the nation), good for a clip of 3.68 kills per set that's 44th in the country. Finally, there's sophomore Maggie Brahmer and her 149 kills (3.17 K/S).

If that seemed like a bad sign, you won't want to hear the rest.

As it turns out, this terrific trio is even more terrific than these numbers alone could indicate. Here, convention has to be thrown out of the window in favor of a total spewing of stats. They do a good job of telling the story on their own. 

Team-best killer, Beller? She's racking up those numbers on the 10th-best hitting percentage in the country (.433). Cada, the runner-up for team-high in kills? She's an all-out attacker. Cada's 18th in the country in attacks per set with 11.09 and 17th in total attacks with 521. She leads the NSIC in both of those metrics. And Brahmer? Oh, nothing, just the fifth-highest hitting percentage in Division II volleyball at .462. 

Who's setting all of this up? That would be junior Rachel Walker with 524 assists and 11.15 assists per set. Would it surprise you to hear that she's ranked eighth and 13th in these fields, respectively?

Sure hope you haven't forgotten about Brahmer, because she isn't done yet. Brahmer didn't settle for bronze when it came to blocking; she has the team-lead in this arena with 58, good for 1.23 blocks a set. With more stats comes more national recognition; Brahmer is 21st in blocks per set in the country and tied for 12th in total blocks.

Jessie Brandl leads the team in digs with 204 (4.34 D/S) and also allows us the opportunity to catch a breath. 

It's hard to quantify all of this. Two things do make a lot of sense, though. For one thing, it tracks pretty clearly that this would translate into a team that has the third-highest hitting percentage in the country (0.301). It also feels right that Scott Kneifl, a head coach in his 18th season with this program and a 404-139 overall record to show for it (that's a .744 winning percentage), would be at the helm of a group like this. 

There's no doubt that Boos is familiar with these figures; his analysis of the squad aligns with them pretty seamlessly.

"(Wayne State is) very controlled with what they do," Boos said. "They keep the ball in play really really well across the board. They have a beach volleyball program, and it shows. They can all handle the ball very well, and it makes it very hard to terminate against them. They don't make a lot of mistakes in any aspect of the game, and they're super physical, especially in the middle. Those two are two of the more physical middles in our league, and they make life pretty tough for you. So that's going to be a very challenging match."

Daunting as a test may be, no matter its pass rate, no matter how much others talk about it, you can only study for so long. At some point, you just have to take it. The Bulldogs are scheduled to do just that on Saturday. 

BITS FROM BOOS: 
What exactly would a study session in preparation for the weekend's action look like, though? Boos says there's a unifying link between the Vikings and the Wildcats that can give his squad a key point of focus that will serve them well in both matches.

"I think both teams serve very aggressively," Boos said. "We've got to work this week to make sure we're ready to handle that tough serving and keep us in-system, run the tempo we're trying to run to try to make it stressful on the other side and then work this week on grinding through some defensive things so that we can try to slow the other side down."

All of the talk thus far has been about things that these soon-to-be visitors do well, things the Bulldogs will have to adapt to. Boos doesn't want it to be lost that his own squad is not only entirely capable in their own right (remember, they're #9 in the country for a reason) but also playing with aces up their sleeves this weekend. 

"It's certainly going to be an uphill climb, but I also think we're very capable, and we've shown an ability to terminate and terminate at a high percentage as well," Boos said.  "And we're at home- that's the big thing, I want these young women to play with the confidence of having the crowd behind them and knowing they're not getting on a bus for eight hours to go back when we're done. Let's give it all we have while we're out there."  

THE SERIES:
Let's close things out with another reason for optimism: historically, UMD has done quite well against both of this weekend's opponents. The Bulldogs hold a 35-12 all-time advantage over the Vikings, though their last matchup was a 3-1 Augustana victory in Sioux Falls. Against the Wildcats, UMD has a 30-10 record across all matchups, though the trend of recent slipups continues as Wayne State took the most recent meeting 3-0 in Wayne. 

THE BROADCAST:
If you can't make it to Romano for Friday's Pack the Gym Night or Saturday's showdown against two top-ten squads, you can follow along with the action live at the links below:

vs Augustana (Friday, September 23 at 6:00 p.m.): https://bit.ly/3UCOVWi
vs Wayne State (Saturday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m.): https://bit.ly/3LtSABB

LAST TIME OUT:
For the first time all season, after 10-consecutive matches on the road, the Bulldogs were welcomed into Romano last weekend. It's a homecoming that went about as well as it ever could have, as UMD swept both MSU Moorhead and Northern State in straight sets. The latter match was closer than the final score would indicate, with the Bulldogs needing extras in the first and second sets to take care of business, but they were able to do just that each time. 

UP NEXT:
There will be no rest for the Bulldogs. A week removed from playing the best team in all the land, UMD will barely have to settle when they play currently #8 Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall on Friday, October 7th at 6:00 p.m. The fourth road trip of the season will continue on Saturday, October 8th with a match against Sioux Falls at 2:00 p.m.