Purdue Fort Wayne
North Dakota State
Women's Volleyball on the Road to End October
10/25/2012 9:58:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Match Notes I Live Stats vs NDSU I Live Video vs NDSU I Live Stats vs SDSU I Live Video vs SDSU
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The IPFW women's volleyball team will face North Dakota State on Friday, Oct. 26 and end the weekend with a match against South Dakota State on Saturday, Oct. 27. Each contest will begin at 8 p.m. EST.
ABOUT IPFW
The women's volleyball program has reached 20 wins or more in four straight seasons as the victory over South Dakota last week improved the Mastodons overall record to 20-4. IPFW is currently in first place of the Summit League standings with a 9-2 record against league opponents.
Senior Megan Steenhuysen sets up a balanced offensive attack for the Mastodons. IPFW has four players with 200 kills or more and a middle hitter that will soon reach that mark after this weekend. Steenhuysen is currently ranked fourth in the NCAA in assists per set as she uses all of her weapons to lead the IPFW offense.
Tessa McGill leads the defensive charge for IPFW as she enters the weekend ranked fourth in the country in digs per set. McGill has 541 digs on the season, including 257 digs in Summit League contests. Hailie Ripley and Jessie Manwaring also impact matches with their play at the net. Ripley leads the team with 89 blocks and Manwaring is second with 76.
Sophomore Emily Spencer has put together a great season as she leads the team in kills (362), service aces (24), and points (419). She is an all-around performer that also has 264 digs, 56 blocks and 15 assists.
SCOUTING THE BISON
North Dakota State enters the weekend in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Summit League standings with a record of 6-5. The Bison are tied with Oakland and South Dakota State for the fourth spot, all three teams are just a half match behind third-place Kansas City.
The Bison have improved their overall record to 10-13 after going 5-2 during the month of October. With two games to play in the month the Bison will travel to Kansas City and to South Dakota before finishing the regular season at home vs. South Dakota State on Nov. 9.
NDSU hosted five matches to begin the month of October. They defeated South Dakota (3-0) and Kansas City (3-1) before losing to North Dakota (0-3). The final two games of their home stand were against Omaha (W, 3-0) and Drake (W, 3-1). The team most recently split a road series walking away with a 3-1 win at Western Illinois and a 1-3 loss at IUPUI.
Brynn Joki and Megan Lambertson have been high impact players on the NDSU roster all season long. Joki leads the team in kills with 315 and is second in digs with 290. Lambertson is the team leader in service aces (19), blocks (80), and is second on the team with 262 kills.
SCOUTING THE JACKRABBITS
South Dakota State will host the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Friday before taking on IPFW the following night. The Jackrabbits are 14-9 overall with a 6-5 league mark. They recently split a road series picking up a win over Western Illinois and a loss at IUPUI. This weekend is the last stretch of home games for SDSU as their final three Summit League games of the season will be away.
Kelli Fiegen and Kaitlin Klingemann provide the team with a one-two punch offensively as each player has over 200 kills on the season. Klingemann also impacts matches with her serving ability as she leads the team in service aces with 21. Fiegen is a force at the net as she is the team leader in blocks with 135. Shay Birath has 485 digs on the season and Lexi Fowler is the team's assist leader with 555.
LAST MATCH VS NORTH DAKOTA STATE
IPFW defeated North Dakota State (25-23, 19-25, 26-28, 25-15, 15-8) on Sept. 29 to improve to 15-3 overall. Megan Steenhuysen recorded a season-high 65 assists and chipped in defensively with 19 digs against the Bison. Other Mastodons to record double-doubles against NDSU included Emily Spencer and Kendall Wienkes. Spencer led the team in kills by tying her season-high of 21. She added 15 digs in the five-set match. Wienkes provided the 'Dons with 11 kills and a career-high 20 digs.
Megan Lambertson and Brynn Joki led the Bison against IPFW as each player recorded over 20 points. Lambertson posted an attack percentage of .500, ending the night with 21 kills and nine digs. Joki was solid in many categories as she finished the game with 16 kills, 10 digs, five blocks, and one service ace.
LAST MATCH VS SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
IPFW swept South Dakota State at the Gates Sports Center (26-24, 25-20, 25-23) on Sept. 28. Emily Spencer impacted the match against the Jackrabbits by recording 15 digs, 14 kills, four blocks, two service aces and an assist. The IPFW senior class also contributed to the win as Haley Emenhiser ended the game with 10 kills while Jessie Manwaring posted an attack percentage of .889 (8-9). Megan Steenhuysen set up the offense with a match-high 46 assists while Tessa McGill led the defensive charge with 20 digs.
Margit Hansing was the bright spot for SDSU in a losing effort. Hansing had 10 kills and 12 digs against the Mastodons. Kelli Fiegen added eight kills and five blocks.
ALL-TIME SERIES
The all-time series between IPFW and North Dakota State is tied at 12-12. The Mastodons were able to tie the series earlier this season by defeating the Bison 3-2. These two programs faced each other three times in 2009 and again in 2010. The Mastodons lost two regular season matches against the Bison in 2009, but they came back to record a tournament win against NDSU. The exact opposite happened in 2010 as it was IPFW sweeping the regular season, only to have NDSU take the tournament matchup 3-2. Last year IPFW won 3-1 at home, but fell 1-3 on the road.
IPFW holds a 14-3 advantage over South Dakota State in the all-time series. The 'Dons have won the last 10 matches over the Jackrabbits including a 3-0 victory at the Gates Sports Center earlier this season. The first match between IPFW and SDSU was played in 2004. Two of SDSU's three wins came during the 2007 season.
QUICK HITTERS
• Tessa McGill has recorded 2,110 digs in her career at IPFW which ranks her second all-time in IPFW history and fourth all-time in Summit League history. She is currently ranked fourth in the NCAA in digs per set (6.01).
• Megan Steenhuysen passed Jill Lyon last weekend for third place all-time in IPFW history with 4,333 career assists. She is currently ranked fourth in the NCAA in assists per set (12.16).
• The Mastodons moved up to 56th overall in the latest NCAA Women's Volleyball RPI Rankings (Oct. 22).
• Emily Spencer leads the team with 14 double-doubles in 2012. She recently recorded her 35th career double-double against South Dakota with 19 kills and 14 digs against the Coyotes.
• Tessa McGill set a new season-high with 30 digs against South Dakota. McGill has now recorded a double figure dig total 23 times this season and 95 times in her career.
• The IPFW women's volleyball program has reached 20 or more wins in four-straight seasons.
• North Dakota State enters the weekend in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Summit League standings with Oakland and South Dakota State. The Summit League Tournament features the top four teams in the league.
• The Mastodons are 12-2 all-time when playing on Oct. 26 and 11-3 on Oct. 27.
