The No. 19 University of Minnesota Duluth volleyball team is set to face Minnesota State University Moorhead in a midweek Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) matchup at Nemzek Fieldhouse Tuesday at 6 p.m. The match will be broadcast live on Midco Sports Network.   

LAST TIME OUT: UMD extended its winning streak to nine matches as it swept Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston in a split series last week. The Bulldogs swept the Beavers on the road Thursday, 25-19, 25-18, 25-18, before returning home to Romano Gymnasium to sweep the Golden Eagles, 25-13, 25-21, 25-12. Madeline Guetzkow led the Maroon and Gold with 33 kills and a .660 hitting percentage in the pair of matches, while Ava Jones dished out 70 assists. 

SCOUTING MSU MOORHEAD: The Dragons welcome UMD to Nemzek Fieldhouse with a 10-5 record on the season and a 3-3 NSIC record following a week in which they split their series with Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State. MSU Moorhead defeated the Golden Eagles on the road in four sets, before losing a five-set heartbreaker at home Saturday. Raiah Mandell and Maci Martini lead the Dragons with 2.66 and 2.65 kills per set, respectively, while Leah Laqua and Mya Pfeifer have combined for 85 blocks for their defense. MSU Moorhead ranks fourth in the league in digs with 16.60 per set, led by Martini's 3.83 per set, and leads NSIC in opponent blocks, holding its opponents to 1.47 per set. 

UMD VS. MSU MOORHEAD
Series Record: 70-13
Last Meeting: Oct. 18, 2025 | UMD won 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-11)
Streak: UMD, W10
Elyse Karrels hit .647 with 12 kills and added six block assists and Kendra Behrens had a career-high five block assists to go with four kills to lead the Bulldogs to a sweep of MSU Moorhead in the teams' lone meeting last season. Ava Jones dished out 43 assists in the win. The Bulldogs have won 10-straight in the series vs. the Dragons, with the last eight being sweeps. Since 2013, UMD has only lost once, 2-3, in 2017. 

IN THE POLLS: The Bulldogs moved up one spot from last week to No. 19 in the Sept. 28 AVCA-Taraflex Division II Women's Volleyball Poll. UMD is one of five NSIC teams ranked in the top-25, including No. 2 Wayne State, No. 5 Concordia-St. Paul, No. 11 Southwest Minnesota State and No. 15 St. Cloud State. 

WIN NO. 600 SECURED: Head coach Jim Boos secured his 600th career victory Saturday as the Bulldogs swept visiting Minnesota Crookston at Romano Gymnasium. In his 25th season at the helm of the UMD volleyball program, Boos owns a 600-144 career record. The skipper is just the 11th active NCAA Division II women's volleyball head coach to reach the milestone and 45th active head coach to reach win No. 600. His .806 career winning percentage is tied for third among active Division II head coaches and tied for ninth among active head coaches at all divisions. 

NCAA LEADERS: The Bulldogs are the NCAA Division II leaders in kills per set with 14.85 average. They are averaging 15.00 per set in NSIC matches this season and 15.15 kills per set during their nine-match winning streak. Madeline Guetzkow paces UMD with a 3.67 kills per set average, followed by Kenzie Kiminski with 3.18 kills per set and Paige Decker with 3.11 kills per set. 

NSIC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Senior Madeline Guetzkow was named the NSIC Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 28 after leading the NSIC with a .660 hitting percentage, 5.75 points per set and 5.50 kills per set in sweeps of Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State. The right side hitter posted a match-high 16 kills while hitting .652 against the Beavers and led all players with 17 kills while hitting .667 against the Golden Eagles. Both hitting percentages rank among the NCAA's top single-match performances this season. Guetzkow added eight digs and three total blocks over the weekend. Guetzkow is UMD's first Offensive Player of the Week selection since Samantha Paulsen earned the honor on Nov. 4, 2024. 
 
BACK-TO-BACK NSIC SETTER OF THE WEEK: Ava Jones earned back-to-back NSIC Setter of the Week honors on Sept. 21 and Sept. 28 after helping the Bulldogs to four-straight league sweeps. Jones garnered her second-consecutive NSIC Setter of the Week accolade, and third of her career, after averaging 11.67 assists per set while leading UMD to an NSIC-best .344 hitting percentage against BSU and Minnesota Crookston. Not only did she rank second in the league in assists, but she also ranked second in the league with 0.67 aces per set and also averaged 3.17 digs per set. She picked up her first accolade of the season Sept. 21 after averaging 10.83 assists per set and orchestrating the UMD offense to a .305 hitting percentage in a pair of sweeps over Northern State and RV Jamestown. 

SWEEP STREAK AT NINE: UMD enters Tuesday's road match having swept its last nine opponents, including CSU-Pueblo, Adelphi, Florida Tech, UMary, Minot State, Northern State, Jamestown, Bemidji State and Minnesota Crookston. The last time the Maroon and Gold swept nine in a row was in 2019 when it swept nine-straight from Sept. 7-27 and took down five teams ranked in the top-25 during that stretch. The last time the Bulldogs swept 10-straight was during the 1996 season from Sept. 20 through Oct. 23.   

STATS DURING STREAK: The Bulldogs have outhit their opponents, .339 to .106, during their nine-match winning streak, while also holding a significant advantage in kills (15.15 to 9.00), assists (13.63 to 8.33), digs (14.30 to 11.41) and blocks (2.09 to 1.30). 

NSIC LEADER: UMD leads the NSIC in points (18.73), kills (14.85), opponent hitting percentage (.142), opponent assists (9.22), opponent kills (9.83) and opponent digs (12.20) heading into its contest at MSU Moorhead Tuesday. It also ranks second in the league in hitting percentage (.297) and service aces (1.96). 

EFFICIENT HITTERS: The Bulldogs have three players that rank in the top five in the NSIC in hitting percentage, including the league-leader in Paige Decker with a .433 hitting percentage and second in the conference in Elyse Karrels with a .416 hitting percentage. After her monster performance last weekend, Madeline Guetzkow moved up to fifth in the league with a .389 hitting percentage. In league-only matches, Guetzkow and Decker rank 1-2 in hitting percentage with .504 and .474 marks, respectively. Kenzie Kiminski also appears in the top-10 in conference-only matches with a .336 hitting percentage to rank ninth. 

ACES WILD: Sophomore Brietta Tims leads the league and ranks 43rd nationally with 0.54 aces per set and is tied for sixth with 22 total service aces. She has recorded at least one ace in 12 of the 13 matches in which she's appeared, including a career-high five in the Bulldogs' win at Northern Michigan. 

SINGLE-GAME TOP-25: The Bulldogs have put up some big numbers this season, including some single-match highs that rank among the top in the NCAA. Paige Decker's .692 hitting percentage and 19 kills vs. Cal State East Bay ranks No. 7 for min. 20 attempts and tie for No. 16 in a three-set match, respectively. Madeline Guetzkow's .667 hitting percentage vs. Minnesota Crookston is tied for No. 9 and her .652 hitting percentage vs. Bemidji State is tied for No. 15 for a min. 20 attempts. Guetzkow's .667 hitting percentage vs. Minot State is tied for No. 24 on 15-19 attempts. Ava Jones's 42 assists vs. Tiffin are tied for No. 13 for a three-set match.