BEMIDJI, Minn. — Bemidji State University Volleyball heads on the road Friday and Saturday to compete at the University of Sioux Falls and No. 18 Southwest Minnesota State University. Friday's match at USF is set for 6 p.m. and Saturday's at SMSU is scheduled for 2 p.m.
The Beavers are 7-15 this season with a 4-10 record in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Last week, the Beavers started strong with their first win over the University of Minnesota Duluth since 1998, a streak spanning 40 matches. The Beavers took do then No. 18 UMD 3-2 with a .236 attack percentage. The Beavers then hosted No. 6 Wayne State College and Augustana University, falling in three sets to both.
Bemidji State has cracked the top 100 leader board in the NCAA for team kills, taking 93
rd out of 277 ranked programs with 1004 kills this season. Sophomore
Lily Riese rank 68
th in kills per set, 70
th in total attacks and 32
nd in total kills. Freshman
Madison Tripp quickly emerged as the top setter this season, lining up 507 set assists so far. She has also landed 20 service aces, third most on the team.
Kylie Struble leads the defensive unit with 275 digs and is second in aces with 24. At the net,
Karley Dunham leads with 57 total blocks, while
Grace Hoffard has begun to climb and now holds 38 in second place.
The Cougars sit at 13-9 this season with an 8-6 record in NSIC play. Currently on a three-match winning streak, the Cougars dominated last week, taking down the No. 17 SMSU, 3-1, then sweeping Minnesota State University Moorhead and University of Minnesota Crookston, all on the road. Earlier this season, the Cougars defeated the Beavers in four sets in Bemidji.
Last month, Cougars Sadie Voss and Ella Walker led their team with 12 kills each. Voss added two service aces in the match. Walker was instrumental at the net, marking three assisted blocks and one solo against BSU's offense. She led USF with a .579 attack percentage with just one attack error in 19 attempts. Gretchen Volk led the Cougars' defense in the back row with 13 digs and three service aces on offense.
In their last four matches, the Mustangs have won twice. SMSU started with a 3-1 loss at Wayne State then fell to Sioux Falls in the same fashion. Last weekend, things started looking up for the Mustangs as they took down UMC and MSUM in straight sets on the road. They'll host University of Minnesota Duluth on Friday before the Beavers get to Marshall.
SMSU swept BSU when the two teams met at the BSU Gymnasium earlier this season. Junior outside hitter Leah Jones played a large role in the Mustangs' success that match with 14 kills and three service aces. She hit at .325 percent with one error on 40 attempts. Jones added an assisted block and eight digs for a team-leading 17.5 points. Defensively, McKenzie Tolk and Mya Krystosek led the team with 12 and 11 digs, respectively. For the Beavers,
Lily Riese led the team with 13 points in the match.
The Beavers remain on the road next weekend as they finish out the travel portion of the regular season at No. 24 Minnesota State University Mankato and No. 11 St. Cloud State University. They return home to finish the regular season on Nov. 14 and 15 against No. 9 Concordia University, St. Paul and Winona State University, respectively. Tickets for all home matches are available at Hometown Ticketing on the BSU Beavers website and streaming is available on the NSIC Network.
For more information on the Bemidji State Volleyball program, tickets or schedules, visit BSUBeavers.com, follow the Beavers on X (@BSUBeaversVB), like them on Facebook (facebook.com/BSUBeavers) and like them on Instagram (@BSUBeaversVB).
Located on the shore of Lake Bemidji, Bemidji State University sponsors 15 varsity athletic programs with NCAA Division I men's and women's hockey membership in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Western Collegiate Hockey Association, while its 13 NCAA Division II programs hold membership in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
