Game Time... The Red Raider volleyball team will play in the 2007 NAIA Regional Tournament this weekend in Sioux Falls, S.D. Northwestern is seeded fourth in the six-team field and are pooled with top-seeded Dickinson State and fifth-seed Dordt College. They will open against the Defenders on Friday, Nov. 16, at 9:00 am and will then play the Blue Hawks at 5:00 pm. National American, Morningside and Hastings are in the other pool of three. The 2007 regional tournament is being hosted by Sioux Falls Christian High School.
Scouting Report... All six teams in this year's tournament field were ranked in the final NAIA rating. Top-seeded Dickinson is ranked seventh, followed by National American (11), GPAC champion Morningside (15), Northwestern (17), Dordt (19) and Hastings (26). Four of the teams, Dickinson State, National American, Hastings and the Red Raiders qualified for the national tournament last season. Both Dickinson State and National American reached the Elite Eight and NAU won the national championship, which capped off an undefeated season.
Dickinson State comes in as the number seed and ranked seventh in the NAIA with a 29-3 overall record. Head Coach Dave Moody, in his 18th season with the V-Hawks, went undefeated during the DAC regular season and then won the postseason conference tournament last weekend. They knocked off Jamestown in the semifinals and defeated South Dakota Mines on Saturday night in the championship, 3-0. Dickinson is led by All-American and DAC Player-of-the-Year, senor Nancy Nyongesa from Bungoma, Kenya. Nyongesa averaged 4.3 kills per game, hit .372 for the year and led the team with 3.4 digs. She also was third on the team with 1.1 blocks per game. Judith Boel, a 6-4 middle hitter from The Netherlands, earned first team all-DAC honors after leading the team with a .410 attack percentage and blocks (1.6 per game). Boel averaged 3.5 kills per game and served a remarkable 106 aces this season. Elizabeth Castillo, a 5-9 senior from Lima, Peru, averaged 3.3 kills per game and hit .360 for the season. Katelynn Stiefel, a senior from Beulah, N.D., earned DAC Setter-of-the-Year honors after averaging 12.4 assists per game. She also totaled 49 ace serves and 82 blocks. Junior libero Elena Malysheva from Russia averaged 3.3 digs per game.
The Dordt College Defenders are 31-8 entering the weekend and are the fifth seed in the tournament. Dordt has been led by Kristin De Ronde’s 3.79 kills per game and earned honorable mention all-GPAC honors. Larissa Veldhuizen puts down 3.45 per game and Kendra Potgeter at 3.33 and Autumn Vande Kamp at 3.04. Potgeter, a freshman from Byron Center, Mich., earned second team all-league honors. Emily Van Voorst paces the Dordt attack with 12.65 assists per game and also has 41 ace serves with 2.72 digs and was a first-team all-GPAC selection. Dorinda Hibma gets to 5.47 digs per game and leads the team with 44 ace serves this season. She earned second team all-conference honors and was the national Libero-of-the-Week earlier this season. Liz Van Voorst and Betsy Van’t Hul average 3.37 and 3.45 digs per game for a team that averages 20.68 digs per contest with 15.27 kills and a .238 kill efficiency. Potgteter leads the team in blocks with 1.33 and De Ronde is a 1.00.
Last Time Out... The Red Raiders lost in the championship game of the GPAC tournament to Morningside, 3-0. Individual game scores were 30-25, 30-28 and 30-28. Northwestern hit .197 for the match compared to .233 for the Mustangs. Bobbie jean Rich led NWC with 13 kills and hit .273 for the match. Megan Meyer added nine kills and Randa Hulstein recorded eight kills and six blocks. Meyer added a team-best 11 digs. Rachel Gosselink lofted up 37 assists and had one ace serve.
The Defenders have not played since a Nov. 7, 3-0 loss to Morningside in the GPAC semifinals. Individual game scores were 30-22, 30-22 and 30-24. Dordt was led by Autumn Vande Kamp's 12 kills and Kristin De Ronde had 10 while Larissa Veldhuizen added nine. Emily Van Voorst had 31 assists and six digs and Dorinda Hibma led Dordt with 13 digs. De Ronde had three solo and three assisted blocks.
Dickinson State won the DAC postseason championship last Saturday night as they defeated SD Tech, 3-0. Game scores were 30-19, 30-23 and 30-16. Elizabeth Rodriquez, Elizabeth Castillo and Judith Boel recorded double figures in kills for the victorious Blue Hawks.
The Series...Northwestern is 1-4 vs National American, 19-24 vs Hastings, 10-6 vs Morningside, 1-0 vs Dickinson State and 28-32 against Dordt (Since 1989).
Red Raider Notes... The Red Raiders are 27-8 this season and are the number four seed in the tournament. Northwestern finished as the runner-up to Morningside in both the GPAC regular season and the GPAC post-season tournament. Northwestern averages 15 kills per game, 1.74 ace serves and 19.15 digs per game. A very potent offensive team with great balance, the Raiders have spread it around between five players. Megan Meyer, the 2007 GPAC player of the year, leads the team with 3.39 kills per game. Bobbie Jean Rich averages 3.01, Hillary Hanno at 2.78, Kaitlin Beaver puts down 2.66 and Randa Hulstein 2.39. Beaver earned first team all-league honors and both Hanno and Hulstein were named to the second team. The Raiders hit .223 as a team and Rachel Gosselink, a first team all-league setter, puts up 13.08 assists per game. Hulstein leads the team in blocks with 1.24 and three players have over 40 ace serves this season—they are Beaver with 48 and Gosselink with 41 and Delainye Hardersen with 41. Meyer is the co-leader in digs with Janna Bloemendaal with 3.39 per game.
NATIONAL TOURNAMENT BERTHS…Each of the 14 regions in the NAIA will receive automatic berths for their champions. Two additional berths are held as “Wild Cards” which the NAIA can award to a highly rated team that may have been eliminated from championship opportunity by teams who do qualify. Region II will receive three additional berths to their runner-up, third place and fourth place winners. Other scenarios exist where the Region I runner-up and the Region III runner-up teams qualify.
Regional Tournament Release and Schedule
2007 media guide
