Dustin

Since all of the winter sports are over, I, like many fans, am already looking ahead to next year. While I've seen several discussions on football, basketball, and hockey, I haven't seen any about the upcoming volleyball season. A few of the major things that stand out to me: 1) Summit League - some new opponents, some old rivals. Denver has the best thing going in Summit volleyball at the moment, so they will be our best competition right off the bat. Not sure who else will be able to make noise. 2) Scheduling - One of the things I noticed with Summit League scheduling is that games tend to be on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I deeply hope that UND's home games are NOT scheduled this way. I really liked Thursday night and Saturday late morning/early afternoon. Hopefully Graves will be able to exert some will in this area. 3) We graduated the most accomplished senior class in UND volleyball history last year. Our biggest names coming back are Alivia Fraase, Jordan Vail, Ashley Brueggeman, and Sidney Mattson. 2018 will be a completely different look than the last two years, so Pryor will have his work cut out for him if he expects another conference championship.

Can someone update this list for 2017-18? Looking for a ride to the game on Saturday.

Ah, makes a little more sense now.

Yeah, what's up with that?

The college volleyball season ended last night with Nebraska claiming its fifth national championship. They beat Florida 3-1.

Florida went up 2-0 over Stanford, then had to win it in 5 sets before clinching their spot in the national title match. Nebraska vs. Florida on Saturday night. Florida has been to the final four a number of times, but has never won it. Nebraska is an NCAA powerhouse with 4 nattys.

Nebraska defeated penn state in 5 sets in the first national semifinal. Florida and Stanford currently playing in the second.

I'm personally excited to go to BB conference tourney in Sioux Falls. I've watched some of the summit league tourney games on TV (thanks to Midco - now we'll get to see quarterfinal and semifinal action), and it does have the feel of being "big time."

To some extent I agree, but being a Conference champion and NCAA participant are irreplaceable signs of success. To me the goal should be a strong enough non conference schedule to allow us to not play the seeded team right off the bat.

https://wisconsinjuniors.com/morgan-hunt-commits-north-dakota/ When asked, what separated North Dakota from other schools? Morgan answered, “UND is a great school for me to earn my degree. Their volleyball program competes at a high level, the facilities are amazing, and their fan base is unbelievable. The people of Grand Forks, ND really support the university’s athletics. I also connected instantly with the coaching staff and future teammates. I know it’s going to be cold, but I know I’ll get over it!”

I noticed Denver was high enough to not play a seeded team. Looking for that type of development for our program.

I'm guessing that getting sent to Minneapolis will be the most likely destination as long as Minnesota is one of the seeded teams. What would be nice is to be ranked high enough to play the other game of that bracket.

11/19/17 RPI has UND at #72 and Denver at #55. I am very curious how we stack up against the Pios next year.

I was wondering what conference RPI was against the Summit. I assumed because Denver was #60 in the 11/12/17 NCAA RPI (UND was #81) that the Summit League would be higher. I thought the Big Sky had a lot of parity at the top this year - there was only one sweep in 7 conference tournament games (Idaho over Idaho St in the quarterfinal).

That would take a ranking higher than 48, correct?

Dooley and Griffin, yes. Not ready to give Merselli that honor. I would argue for Lexi Robinson over her, but not sure she’s even top 5. Other names I would add to a top 5 consideration are Nikki Husfeldt, McKenzie Hart, Ronni Munkeby, Lisa Parlich, and Chelsea Moser.

Was a little disappointed with some of the conference losses that cost them the chance to host again. That was really the only way the season could have been sweeter.

Absolutely. She had a great conference tournament. Bruggeman too.

Only top 16 teams are seeded, so while that would incredible, I don’t think our stock is that high. Will have play a regional team like Minnesota or Nebraska.

Played a beautiful 4th set, and continued that play right to the championship! Gutsy win. Congrats, ladies. Represent UND strong.

I am hoping 30 wins is not the finish!

All the top seeds advance setting up what should be a fantastic semifinal round.

Nailbiter set 4, but UND (finally) prevails with a 29-27 win. Whew!!!! On to the semi-final, and good riddance to Weber St! They played us tough this year.

UND takes set 3 25-19 for a 2-1 lead.

Back and forth second set leads to a 1-1 tie at the break. WSU won 25-23. Need better play from here on out.