SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Kansas City and Denver went 2-0 last week and remain the lone undefeated teams in league play heading into week two. The Roos went 9-3 during the non-conference schedule and lead the league in opponent hitting percentage (.161), total blocks (137.5) and digs (999). For the Pioneers, they top the league charts in service aces per set (1.81) and the fewest opponent digs (395).
North Dakota, North Dakota State, Omaha and South Dakota State all went 1-1 last week, while South Dakota and St. Thomas lost its lone match they played last week. Oral Roberts, who went 0-2 last week, will look to bounce back after losing their previous eight matches, including six non-conference matches.
Both North Dakota and St. Thomas will play matches on back-to-back days. On Thursday, St. Thomas faces North Dakota State in Fargo and North Dakota hosts Omaha. The two squads will serve it up in Grand Forks on Friday in the lone match of the night.
TEAM TRACKER
DENVER PIONEERS (3-7; 2-0 SL) | @DU_Volleyball
Next Up: at South Dakota State (9/28; 6 p.m. MT); at South Dakota (9/30; 11 a.m. MT)
Previous Matches: vs. North Dakota (W, 3-0); vs. North Dakota State (W, 3-0)
After going 1-7 during the non-conference slate, Denver registered two home sweeps to open league play ... The Pioneers totaled 12 blocks against North Dakota and served up six aces against North Dakota State ... Denver attackers were helped by a match-high 32 assists from Briley Decker against the Fighting Hawks ... Against the Bison, Cadi Boyer, the TicketSmarter Summit League Volleyball Offensive Peak Performer of the Week, finished with 11 kills while accumulating a hitting percentage of .500 ... Gianna Bartalo notched 23 digs, six service aces and one kill over the weekend ... Denver will head to The Mount Rushmore State and head to South Dakota State before driving down to face South Dakota.
KANSAS CITY ROOS (11-3; 2-0 SL) | @KCRoosVB
Next Up: at South Dakota (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); vs. Oral Roberts (9/30; 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at Omaha (W, 3-2); vs. South Dakota State (W, 3-2)
Kansas City’s momentum from the non-conference schedule carried over to the first week of league action as they captured a pair of five-set wins ... Odyssey Warren surpassed the 1,000-career kill mark against South Dakota State ... She finished the match with a game-high 26 kills, putting her 19 kills away from crossing into the top ten in program history in career kills ... Leah Green, the TicketSmarter Summit League Volleyball Defensive Peak Performer of the Week, finished with a combined 54 digs, averaging 5.4 digs per set ... Her 30-dig outing against the Jackrabbits was the second time this year surpassing that mark ... Through Sept. 26, Green ranks seventh in the nation with 289 total digs and 20th with 4.98 digs per set.
NORTH DAKOTA FIGHTING HAWKS (4-10; 1-1 SL) | @UNDvolleyball
Next Up: vs. Omaha (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); vs. St. Thomas (9/29; 7 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at Denver (L, 3-0); at Oral Roberts (W, 3-2)
The Fighting Hawks went 1-1 over the weekend to open league play and were guided by Elizabeth Norris’ second triple-double of the season, which ranks tied for fifth in the nation ... Norris recorded 10 kills, 30 assists and 12 digs against Oral Roberts ... Lauren Perugini recoded a .292 hitting percentage and set a new career high with 12 kills and added 14 digs to collect her first career double-double against the Golden Eagles ... Also, against ORU, Skylar Darr set a new career high with 18 digs, as did Maddie Lipetzky with 15 ... North Dakota will host back-to-back matches in consecutive days when they face Omaha and St. Thomas.
NORTH DAKOTA STATE BISON (9-4; 1-1 SL) | @NDSUvolleyball
Next Up: vs. St. Thomas (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); vs. Omaha (9/30; 6 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at Oral Roberts (W, 3-1); at Denver (L, 3-0)
Alexis Boling and the Bison opened the league slate with a four-set victory over Oral Roberts followed by a loss to Denver ... Boling led NDSU with a team-high 25 kills and a team-best 3.57 kills per set over the weekend ... She registered a .422 hitting percentage and recorded a team-high 16 kills with a .464 hitting percentage in the win over the Golden Eagles ... Taylor Quan tallied a team-best 21 digs where she posted 15 against ORU ... Ally Barth paced the Bison in a defeat to the Pioneers as the sophomore middle blocker posted a match-high 12 kills to go along with a .750 hitting percentage ... Barth’s overall .366 hitting percentage continues to lead the league and her 34 total blocks sits 12th.
OMAHA MAVERICKS (2-10; 1-1 SL) | @OmahaVB
Next Up: at North Dakota (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); at North Dakota State (9/30; 6 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. Kansas City (L, 3-2); vs. South Dakota (W, 3-1)
The Mavericks are back to their winning ways as they picked up a clutch four-set home win against the defending regular season and tournament champions, South Dakota ... Against the Coyotes, three Mavericks recorded double-digit kills with Rachel Fairbanks leading the charge with her highest kill total since 2021 at 14 ... Shayla McCormick and McKenna Ruch were right behind her with 12 and 11 kills, respectively ... McCormick posted her second straight double-double as she added 13 digs against USD ... Overall for the weekend, McCormick led the team with 29 kills (3.11 kills per set, while Morgan DeBow led Omaha with 10 total blocks (1.11 blocks per set), including one solo block ... UNO will head up the I-29 and face North Dakota followed by North Dakota State.
ORAL ROBERTS GOLDEN EAGLES (2-12; 0-2 SL) | @ORUVolleyball
Next Up: at Kansas City (9/30; 1 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. North Dakota State (L, 3-1); vs. North Dakota (L, 3-2)
Trinity Freeman continues to dominate for the Golden Eagles as the junior racked up 42 kills (4.67 k/s) in the first two league matches last week ... The junior, who has now reached exactly 21 kills in three straight matches, also held a .288 attack percentage and registered her fourth double-double of the season against North Dakota ... Freeman has now topped the Golden Eagles in kills in nine straight matches and has reached double-figures in seven straight matches... Breanna Rivas tallied 30 digs where she averaged 3.33 digs per set against NDSU and UND ... Her 3.62 digs per set rank fourth in the league, while Alaina Larson’s 0.50 service aces per set tops the league charts ... Oral Roberts will look to snap its eight-match losing streak when then heads to Kansas City.
ST. THOMAS TOMMIES (4-8; 0-1 SL) | @Tommievball
Next Up: at North Dakota State (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); at North Dakota (9/29; 7 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: vs. South Dakota State (L, 3-0)
St. Thomas fell to South Dakota State in its lone league match of the weekend ... Ella Voegele posted a match-high 23 digs, while Morgan Kealy leads the team in assists with 30 ... Kealy also tied with sophomore Megan Wetter in blocks with two ... Kaitlynn Peterson and Tezra Rudzitis led the Tommies with nine kills while Rudzitis finished the match with a .563 hitting percentage ... The second set of the match saw 14 times where the score was tied ... Among the league leaders, Kealy sits fifth in both assists (365) and assists per set (8.49) ... The Tommies will head to North Dakota State and North Dakota this weekend.
SOUTH DAKOTA COYOTES (6-6; 0-1 SL) | @SDCoyotesVB
Next Up: vs. Kansas City (9/28; 7 p.m. CT); vs. Denver (9/30; 12 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at Omaha (L, 3-1)
The Coyotes fell in four sets against Omaha to open the league slate ... Madison Harms recorded her 1,000th career kill where she posted seven kills with just two errors on 20 attempts ... She hit .250 overall and added three block assists ... On the defensive side of the ball, Brynn Paumen garnered five blocks, including three solo blocks ... She attributed nine points, added five kills with just one error and hit .250 overall ... As a team, USD sits second in the league with 108 total blocks and fifth with 69 service aces ... South Dakota will look to move above .500 when they host Kansas City and Denver, the two lone undefeated teams in league play.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE JACKRABBITS (3-11; 1-1 SL) | @GoJacksVB
Next Up: vs. Denver (9/28; 7 p.m. CT)
Previous Matches: at St. Thomas (W, 3-0); at Kansas City (L, 3-2)
Katie Van Egdom averaged 4.5 kills per set as the Jackrabbits swept St. Thomas and a nearly reverse swept Kansas City to open the league season... Van Egdom ranks second in the league with 3.45 kills per set after the first weekend... She tallied 16 kills at a .400 clip against the Tommies, then recorded 20 kills and two assists against the Roos ... On the defensive end, she contributed 18 digs and two blocks against the Roos ... Stella Winterfeld averaged 5.13 digs per set, which ranks second among the opening weekend of league action ... She also had five assists and three ace serves on the week ... SDSU will host its first match of the season when they welcome Denver into Brookings.
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