SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – During the opening weekend of volleyball competition, #SummitVB teams combined to capture 14 wins with North Dakota State remaining undefeated into the second week of play. Omaha, Oral Roberts, South Dakota and South Dakota State all collected a pair of wins, while Kansas City, North Dakota and St. Thomas captured a win of their own.
USD’s Elizabeth Juhnke became the sixth player in program history to reach the 1,000 dig/1,000 kill club and was named to the Coyote Invitational All-Tournament team after she averaged 4.64 kills per set, which leads the league, tallied 51 kills and notched a .238 hitting percentage.
NDSU’s Ali Hinze was lights out in the SEMO Invitational, as the outside hitter was named the tournament’s MVP after reaching double-digit kills in all three matches and added 35 total digs on the defensive end.
Denver and Western Illinois will look to get on the win column as we’ll see league squads competing in tournament from the Mile High State to New Orleans.
TEAM TRACKER
PIONEERS (0-3; 0-0- SL) | @DU_Volleyball
Next Up: vs. Portland (9/1; 6 p.m. MT); vs. Butler (9/2; 7 p.m. MT); vs. Hofstra (9/3; 6 p.m. MT)
Previous Matches: vs. Western Michigan (L, 3-1), vs. Green Bay (L, 3-1), at Colorado (L, 3-2)
The Pioneers competed in the Buffalo Invitational, falling to Western Michigan and Green Bay in four sets and went five sets with Colorado before falling 3-2 ... Against the Buffaloes, Lorrin Poulter recorded a match-high 17 digs, while Hailey Green had a team-high 19 kills ... Green led the Pioneers offensively over the opening weekend, as the outside hitter recorded 43 kills and posted a .212 hitting percentage ... DU will look for its first win of the campaign this weekend when its hosts the Denver Invitational.
ROOS (1-2; 0-0 SL) | @KCRoosVB
Next Up: vs. Ohio (9/2; 10 a.m. CT); at Tulane (9/2; 6:30 p.m. CT); vs. Howard (9/3; 11 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Miami [Ohio] (W, 3-2), vs. No. 21 Western Kentucky (L, 3-0), at Bradley (L, 3-2)
Kansas City kicked off the Bradley Invitational with a five-set win over Miami (Ohio) and were led by Odyssey Warren and Raina Smith with 14 and 11 kills, respectively ... Waren also sent across a season-high 16 kills on 46 attacks against Bradley and also had four service aces on the weekend ... Kennedy Schritenthal was impressive on the defensive side, posting two 20-plus dig performances, including a career-high 24 against the Redhawks ... Against the Braves, Schritenthal finished with 20 digs.
FIGHTING HAWKS (1-2; 0-0 SL) | @UNDVolleyball
Next Up: vs. Wright State (9/2; 10 a.m. CT); vs. Indiana State (9/2; 4 p.m. CT); at Western Michigan (9/3; 10 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at Montana (L, 3-0), vs. UC Davis (L, 3-0), vs. UT Arlington (W, 3-2)
After being swept by Montana and UC Davis to open its season at the Ellesyn Invitational, North Dakota closed the tournament out by capturing its initial victory under first-year head coach Jesse Tupac with a 3-2 triumph over UT Arlington ... After splitting the first two sets, UND opened the final set with an 11-7 run before winning 15-12 ... The Fighting Hawks led the stat charts in kills (50), service aces (7), blocks (10), assists (45) and digs (64) ... Elizabeth Norris led UND with a career-high ten kills against the Mavericks.
BISON (3-0; 0-0 SL) | @NDSUVolleyball
Next Up: at Louisiana (9/2; 9 a.m. CT); vs. UTSA (9/2; 4 p.m. CT); vs. UTRGV (9/3; 9 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Jackson State (W, 3-2), at SEMO (W, 3-2), vs. Arkansas - Pine Bluff (W, 3-0)
NDSU, who went undefeated to start the season at the SEMO Invitational, is off to its first 3-0 start since 2011 ... Ali Hinze was named the SEMO Invitational MVP after tallying a team-high 42 kills and averaged a team-best 3.23 kills per set ... She reached double-digit kills in all three matches, including a season-high 17 against Southeast Missouri State ... Defensive specialist Ava Schmoll contributed a team-high 40 digs and 3.08 digs per set average, while reaching double-digit digs in all three matches, including a career-high 17 against the Redhawks.
MAVERICKS (2-1; 0-0 SL) | @OmahaVB
Next Up: vs. Wichita State (9/1; 7 p.m. CT); vs. Northern Colorado (9/3; 4 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Winthrop (W, 3-0), at South Carolina (L, 3-0), vs. Sacred Heart (W, 3-2)
The Mavericks went 2-1 in the Carolina Classic, defeating Winthrop and Sacred Heart ... Sophomore outside hitter Shayla McCormick led all players in the tournament in kills (48), kills per set (4.36), points (54.0) and points per set (4.91) ... She recorded the first double-double of the season for Omaha against Sacred Heart, picking up a match-leading 20 kills along with 15 digs in the 3-2 victory ... In the season opening sweep against Winthrop, McCormick and Marriah Buss led all players with 18 and 11 kills, respectively.
GOLDEN EAGLES (2-1; 0-0 SL) | @ORUVolleyball
Next Up: at Illinois State (9/2; 10 a.m. CT), vs. SEMO (9/2; 5 p.m. CT), vs. Green Bay (9/3; 11 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Central Arkansas (L, 3-1), vs. Tennessee Tech (W, 3-1), at Missouri State (W, 3-2)
After falling to Central Arkansas in four sets in the season opener, ORU captured wins against Tennessee Tech and Missouri State ... Sophomore outside hitter Trinity Freeman led the Golden Eagles in kills during all three matches, finishing with 47 total, which was the third-most in the league last week ... Sakira LaCour, the league’s reigning blocks leader, finished with a team-best 22 blocks, tied for the most in the league ... In the final match of the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Invitational, Oral Roberts rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Bears as Freeman and LaCour were both named to the all-tournament team.
TOMMIES (1-2; 0-0 SL) | @TommieVBall
Next Up: vs. Central Michigan (9/2, 3 p.m. CT), at Saint Louis (9/3; 10 a.m. CT), vs. Youngstown State (9/3, 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Grand Canyon (L, 3-0), vs. San Francisco (L, 3-0), at Montana State (W, 3-2)
After losing back-to-back contests to open the season, St. Thomas picked up a 3-2 victory over Montana State on the Bobcats’ home court ... Freshman middle blocker Emma Goerger, who was selected to the Bobcat Classic All-Tournament Team, led the Tommies offensively with 18 kills, eight blocks and hit .293 in the win over MSU ... In total, Goerger registered 22 kills, 13 blocks and four service aces in three matches ... The Tommies led all league teams during the opening weekend with 1.73 service aces per set.
COYOTES (2-1; 0-0 SL) | @SDCoyotesVB
Next Up vs. Portland State (9/2; 11 a.m. CT), vs. New Mexico (9/2; 4 p.m. CT), at UTEP (9/3; 11:30 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. No. 4 Louisville (L, 3-0), vs. Northern Kentucky (W, 3-0), vs. Missouri (W, 3-2)
USD opened the campaign winning two out of three matches as they hosted the Coyote Invitational ... After falling to No. 4 Louisville, 3-0, in front of a record crowd of 2,774 inside the Sanford Sports Coyote Center, USD captured wins against Northern Kentucky and Missouri ... The Coyotes limited the Norse to a .043 hitting percentage and in return, hit .393 ... Against the Tigers, Elizabeth Juhnke’s 22 kills and Brooklyn Schram’s 46 assists and 21 digs were the difference makers in the victory, as the duo was named to the all-tournament team.
JACKRABBITS (2-1; 0-0 SL) | @GoJacksVB
Next Up: vs. Eastern Washington (9/2; 6 p.m. CT), vs. Eastern Washington (9/3; 11 a.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. UIC (L, 3-2), at Northern Illinois (W, 3-0), vs. NJIT (W, 3-0)
South Dakota State saw some solid work out of two-time All-League honoree Crystal Burk, who led the Jackrabbits to a 2-1 weekend at the Huskie Invitational ... The fifth-year senior averaged an even four kills per set across three matches and registered a .480 attack rate in a sweep of NJIT ... Sophomore setter Raegen Reilly, who notched 26 digs in a five-set loss to UIC, contributed with 43 digs (3.91 per set) and dished out 8.36 assists per set to go with two service aces, six kills and one block in the tournament.
LEATHERNECKS (0-3; 0-0 SL) | @WIUVolleyball
Next Up: vs. Arkansas State (9/2; 10 a.m. CT), at UT Martin (9/2; 6 p.m. CT), vs. Alabama A&M (9/3; 11 a.m. CT), at Eastern Illinois (9/6; 6 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Lindenwood (L, 3-1), vs. Canisius (L, 3-2), at Purdue Fort Wayne (L, 3-1)
Senior outside hitter Aubrey Putman earned All-Tournament Team accolades at the Purdue Fort Wayne Invitational where she tallied a team-high 37 kills with a 2.85 kills per set average ... Grace Nichols registered a team-high six services aces and garnered a team-high 3.59 points per set ... The Leathernecks will look to get in the win column this week with a trip to the Skyhawk Invitational hosted by UT Martin.
#SummitVB
