Dustin

Lisa Parlich with an emphatic kill to end set 2 - 25-16

Set one was a breeze - 25-15 UND

Northern Arizona @ North Dakota in Big Sky Conference Volleyball - 7 pm tonight. If you are in the Grand Forks area, please support our girls en route to a Big Sky championship! If you are not, you can catch the game live on Midco, Fox College Sports, DirecTV, and of course watchbigsky.com. I read on UNDSports.com that UND has not beaten NAU in volleyball since joining the Big Sky, so there's probably even a little extra spark in these girls. This should be a fantastic display of Big Sky volleyball with 2 of the top 4 teams battling. A win this weekend (either tonight or Saturday) will guarantee a bye into the semifinals at next week's conference tournament.

How 'bout no.

I wonder what the RPI would look like if UND had beaten PSU. I don't remember exactly what their RPI was last week, but PSU jumped about 15-20 spots after beating UND and UNC. There are now 3 Big Sky teams with higher RPI than the highest Summit League team.

I looked at all the Nebraska box scores for this season, and Kira Larsen has not played yet. Perhaps she is being red-shirted, or perhaps she won't see much time with one of the nation's elite programs. A consitent top 30 program would be a tall order, but we may be able to crack top 30 RPI on occasion. Our end-of-the-season RPI was 52 in 2011.

Good to see they're trumping the women's hockey coach salary.

It looks like Caruso would be a fine candidate. Is D3 to FCS too big of a jump?

I'm sure Faison would love to hire him. Not sure if Bollinger would want to be here. Maybe he is within reach. With two young quarterbacks right now, he may exactly what we need. Anybody have any idea how common it is to have NFL experience, either playing or coaching, in the FCS coaching ranks?

Tibesar or Bollinger - but both (especially Tibesar) are pipe dreams.

I noticed it and fixed already.

Montana earned their bid into the conference tourney over the weekend, so 5 of the 6 teams have been determined. The first four seeds are still up for grabs between PSU, UND, NAU, and ISU, with Portland State in the driver's seat for #1 seed. The final spot will be filled by either Sac. State (in driver's seat) or Northern Colorado, who needs helps from Sac. The most intriguing matchups for the final weekend with playoff implications are NAU (13-5) @ UND (15-3) Nov. 21 SAC (9-9) @ UM (10-8) Nov. 23 PSU (15-3) @ ISU (13-5) Nov. 23 NAU (13-5) @ UNC (8-10) Nov. 23

I will be at both remaining home games.

PSU swept UNC. UND and PSU still tied atop the Big Sky.

UND sweeps EWU, including a nice come from behind in set 2. Now to watch UNC @ PSU.

I hadn't heard of Gentili until yesterday. In the picture of the 3 recruits, she looks to be about the same height as Dooley. I agree that these 3 players could be even better than the 3 seniors they're replacing. Very much looking forward to future volleyball seasons!

http://bigskyconf.com/documents/2013/8/20/bracket.pdf Tie-breaker #3 - points. In Grand Forks, every set was determined by 2 points, except the first set, when UND won 25-22. Therefore, to lose and still own the tie-breaker, our "points scored minus points allowed" for the head-to-head matchups would have to be greater than Portland St., which was a tall task. After set 3 last night, that pretty much wasn't going to happen. I'm not sure, but they could still be call co-champs, and the tie-breaker used strictly for seeding.

PSU owns the tie-breaker, too. The Vikings need to lose if UND is going to win the regular season.

Here's the article with Crandall. http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_24517693/college-signing-day-twin-cities-area-commitments Have not seen an article stating Cashman signed his letter.

Griffin signed her Letter of Intent yesterday, too. http://www.marshallindependent.com/page/content.detail/id/542520/VOLLEYBALL--Beekman--Bennett--Griffin-make-college-choices.html?nav=5021

Dooley signed her Letter of Intent yesterday. http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/89952/ Dooley and her Central Cass Squirrels will play for the Region 1 championship tonight for a berth in the State Tournament.

Idaho St. earned their berth in the conference tourney last night. If indeed the 2014 conference tournament will NOT be hosted by the 2013 regular season champion (as indicated by Smoggy above), tonight's game doesn't have as much riding on it as it once did. Even with a UND loss, that doesn't eliminate the girls' chances of winning the Big Sky regular season, it just means that we'd need help from one of PSU's opponents (unless the game is so close that we'd still have the tie-breaker - unlikely). If I had to chose between Big Sky regular season champ and post-season champ, I probably choose regular season champ under the assumption the BESC would get to host the tourney next year. But without that carrot dangling, I would rather have the NCAA auto-bid. If Robinson could get back playing, we should be good enough to achieve both.

This game will be televised on Big Ten Network.

I know this isnt' related to tonight's game, but I checked my TV guide last night, and North Dakota @ Wisconsin will be on Big Ten Network.

Northern Colorado swept Sac St. last night. The Bears may just be in the conference tourney after all. Yikes!!