Volleyball 2012... FIRST YEAR BIG SKY!

[dmksioux]

Unless you're referring to next years Big Sky tournament, the ladies will be heading to Greeley for this years tourney. The Big Sky champion from the previous year is the host for the current year's tourney. Great win by UND tonight! Hopefully they are beginning to play their best ball of the season just in time for the tourney.

[Smoggy]

Biggest win of the season! First win over an upper tier team (NAU, PSU, and ISU).

Hopefully the team can continue to play at a higher level.

Looks like the conference tournament will now be in Pocatello, as ISU now has a one game lead. Although ISU plays at PSU in the last game of the season. Portland would be better for UND: less travel hassles, less home fans, and lower elevation.

This one is in Greeley. For those that don't know they won Big Sky last year.

[SiouxVolley]

This one is in Greeley. For those that don't know they won Big Sky last year.

Thanks. Thought the volleyball tournament host was determined by this regular season, like basketball does it.

[Smoggy]

Thanks. Thought the volleyball tournament host was determined by this regular season, like basketball does it.

On that note it's really weird that basketball is only going to have the top 7. I get wanting the host seed in semi's, but without them playing in the quarterfinals those will be some low attended games.

[darell1976]

I watched the game last night. 3-0 over PSU. Great job UND!! The girls looked really good, and they actually closed the game out without letting the Vikings come back. Felicia Ulrich :love:

[SWSiouxMN]

So here is the situation. we take on Eastern Washington tonight. If we win, we clinch a spot in the tourney. A win and a MSU loss tonight (which is possible, they play NAU), would almost give us the #5 seed in the Big Sky tourney. We would then play UNC or NAU in the first round if that occured. Potentially getting UNC for a third time, being how close the first two games were, would be a good matchup for us

[SWSiouxMN]

Holy Cow! What a match!

UND take down EWU 3-1 to get the weekend sweep and clinch a spot in the conference tournament.

UND looked choppy a lot of the night, but also played solid volleyball a lot of the night. They were flat in the first set, losing that, but then picked it up in set 2 and hung in there in set 3, winning both.

Then came set 4

EWU exploded out to an 11-4 start, and look more than certain to go 5. Then UND began to chip away at the lead. While EWU got a point or two, UND seemed to match it and get a couple of more. All of a sudden its 17-14. Then they rallied to 20-20! EWU however got to set point first at 24-23, then we fought it off. Then they got to set point #2 at 25-24, we fought it off. Then set point 3,4,5,6 we fought it off. Then set point 7 at 30-29, we fought it off. At set point 8, we fought it off! Finally it was 31-31 and the girls had enough. A kill and an ace later set a well attended Betty into a frenzy and clinced a weekend sweep.

Total attendance was 791

[SiouxVolley]

Holy Cow! What a match!

UND take down EWU 3-1 to get the weekend sweep and clinch a spot in the conference tournament.

UND looked choppy a lot of the night, but also played solid volleyball a lot of the night. They were flat in the first set, losing that, but then picked it up in set 2 and hung in there in set 3, winning both.

Then came set 4

EWU exploded out to an 11-4 start, and look more than certain to go 5. Then UND began to chip away at the lead. While EWU got a point or two, UND seemed to match it and get a couple of more. All of a sudden its 17-14. Then they rallied to 20-20! EWU however got to set point first at 24-23, then we fought it off. Then they got to set point #2 at 25-24, we fought it off. Then set point 3,4,5,6 we fought it off. Then set point 7 at 30-29, we fought it off. At set point 8, we fought it off! Finally it was 31-31 and the girls had enough. A kill and an ace later set a well attended Betty into a frenzy and clinced a weekend sweep.

Total attendance was 791

Fighting off eight set points in a row is incredible. What are the odds of that?

Was curious about who leads the Big Sky in volleyball attendance: looks like it is Montana State with 995 a match. Northern Colorado is right about our level with a 727 average. Idaho State is at 682. PSU and NAU are both under 500.

Would be nice to average over 1000, but that would likely take a 20 win season.

[SWSiouxMN]

Fighting off eight set points in a row is incredible. What are the odds of that?

Was curious about who leads the Big Sky in volleyball attendance: looks like it is Montana State with 995 a match. Northern Colorado is right about our level with a 727 average. Idaho State is at 682. PSU and NAU are both under 500.

Would be nice to average over 1000, but that would likely take a 20 win season.

I was curious too so I got the list together

SUU 9/1057

MSU 10/977

UNC 16/733

UND 13/728

EWU 8/696

ISU 9/682

NAU 8/430

Weber 10/402

PSU 10/383

Montana 12/374

Sac St 11/244

So about top 4 in conference attendance. Very surprised that SUU is actually leading the conference in attendance with well over a 1000.

For us, it might not take a 20 win season to get there, if this team make a deep run in the Big Sky tourney (say make it to the championship game), and having everyone coming back and more than likely having NDSU and SDSU in our place could get us there. Yes though, winning will put butts in the seat. The one thing I liked this year was our attendance was consistent throughout the year, we never did have a stinker when it came to attendance (worst attended game was ISU with 388), most nights crowds were around 600-900.

Got the sweep, now lets keep the big Momentum going next week and get the #5 seed and get round 3 with UNC

[Smoggy]

I was curious too so I got the list together

SUU 9/1057

MSU 10/977

UNC 16/733

UND 13/728

EWU 8/696

ISU 9/682

NAU 8/430

Weber 10/402

PSU 10/383

Montana 12/374

Sac St 11/244

So about top 4 in conference attendance. Very surprised that SUU is actually leading the conference in attendance with well over a 1000.

For us, it might not take a 20 win season to get there, if this team make a deep run in the Big Sky tourney (say make it to the championship game), and having everyone coming back and more than likely having NDSU and SDSU in our place could get us there. Yes though, winning will put butts in the seat. The one thing I liked this year was our attendance was consistent throughout the year, we never did have a stinker when it came to attendance (worst attended game was ISU with 388), most nights crowds were around 600-900.

Got the sweep, now lets keep the big Momentum going next week and get the #5 seed and get round 3 with UNC

Personally I was hoping our average would be in 800-900 range. Been seeing a decent number of students going. And it does hurt not having a local "name" showing up.

I know UNC had over a thousand when we were there. It would've been nice to have one of those. And it will happen when/if FU comes here next year.

Is there a sport that Sac. St. isn't last in attendance???

[gfhockey]

We are 136 in the RPI as ove november 5th

IDaho state tops at #57

then Portland at #81

UNC at #88

Im willing to bet our RPI jumps to top 125 tomorrow after the wins this weekend

[SiouxVolley]

I know UNC had over a thousand when we were there. It would've been nice to have one of those. And it will happen when/if FU comes here next year.

Is there a sport that Sac. St. isn't last in attendance???

Sac St draws somewhat decently for football, especially against Davis and Poly. They might actually be third in the conference this year.

NAU hasn't drawn much for anything, although football may be much better now.

[SWSiouxMN]

Last weekend of volleyball play: So I putting up the scenarios for the playoff teams. This is the Thursday Night Edition of games, so anyone who plays tonight and any scenarios that impacts it will be listed. This will be updated sometime tomorrow and for the games on Saturday

1. Idaho State (16-2, 22-5)

Idaho State has clinched a playoff spot

They can clinch a first round bye tonight if

1. ISU beats EWU AND
   
2. UND beats NAU
   

They can clinch the #1 seed and the Big Sky Regular Season Title tonight if

1. ISU beats EWU AND
   
2. Weber beats PSU
   

2. Portland State(15-3, 19-10)

They have clinched a playoff spot

They can clinch a first round bye tonight if

1. PSU beats Weber AND
   
2. UND beats NAU
   

3. Northern Arizona (14-4, 22-5)

The Lumberjacks have clinched a playoff spot.

NAU can stay in the hunt for a 1st round bye tonight if:

1. NAU beats UND AND
   
2. Weber beats PSU OR
   
3. EWU beats ISU
   

NAU can clinch the 3rd seed in the Tournament with

1. NAU beats UND OR
   
2. SUU beats UNC
   

4. Northern Colorado (12-6, 19-10)

The Bears have clinched a playoff spot, they for sure have the 4 seed with the head to head with UND (2-0), however I do not think they can move ahead of NAU. So I think they are pretty set at the 4 seed.

5. North Dakota (10-8, 15-14)

North Dakota has clinched a playoff spot, they cannot get ahead of UNC due to losing the tiebreaker over them

They can clinch the 5 seed tonight with

1. UND beats NAU OR
   
2. Montana State loses to Sac State
   

6. Montana State (8-10, 14-12)

The Bobcats are currently in the drivers seat for the last spot.

The can clinch a playoff spot tonight with

1. Montana State beating Sac State AND
   
2. UNC beating SUU
   

7. Southern Utah (7-11, 11-19)

SUU trails Montana State by 1 game in the playoffs

To stay alive for a playoff spot they need to

1. Sac State beat Montana State AND
   
2. SUU beats UNC
   

8. Sac State (6-12, 10-18)

The Hornets trail the Bobcats by 2 games, however they have beaten them in the first game

To stay alive for a playoff spot they need to

1. Sac State to beat Montana State
   

I think I got them all down, at least the basic ones

[dmksioux]

If anyone is interested and has DirecTv, the match against NAU is on channel 695 which is Fox Sports Arizona. Not sure about Dish tv. Pretty small crowd on hand.

[dmksioux]

The girls came out looking good in the first set. Back and forth the whole set until the end. NAU ended on a 4-0 run to take it 25-23.

[SWSiouxMN]

Took a little extra, but we take set 2! 27-25

[Smoggy]

Should be up 2-0, but dang near got down 0-2. NAU is the most athletic team I've seen, but we (and officials) keep letting them back in.

[dmksioux]

Another close game in set 2. UND started the set a bit slow but was able to turn it around. This time they took the lead late and were able to close it out 27-25 to even the match at 1-1. Unfortunately I won't be able to watch the rest of the match since, ironically enough, I'm going to go play some volleyball.

[SWSiouxMN]

We struggled in set 3, go down 25-17

[SWSiouxMN]

much better 4th set and we take it 25-21, this one will go the full monty...

[SWSiouxMN]

Looked like we were about to be blown out after we went down 7-3. We then stormed back to take 8 straight to lead 11-7. NAU came back with a 6-1 run to retake the lead at 13-12. We then tied it up at 13, then NAU came up with a big block to take a 14-13 lead. Then a kill to end up at 15-13...

We let one slip away.....

[Teeder11]

Has Ulrich ever not service errored in crucial situations?

[Teeder11]

Has Ulrich ever not service errored in crucial situations?

When I saw she was up to serve toward the end of the fifth set, I called the error before she did it. It was the turning point toward UND's doom.

[SWSiouxMN]

With the NAU win they can do no worse than a 3rd seed in the Big Sky, UND will have to wait on the MSU/Sac State result to see if they clinch the 5 seed or have to win tomorrow against SUU to clinch it, UNC will be locked in at the 4 seed.

[SiouxVolley]

With the NAU win they can do no worse than a 3rd seed in the Big Sky, UND will have to wait on the MSU/Sac State result to see if they clinch the 5 seed or have to win tomorrow against SUU to clinch it, UNC will be locked in at the 4 seed.

In spite of the close road loss to NAU, that plus the PSU win seem to indicate that UND has improved during the course of the season. Where they need improvement is the second match of the weeknd.