Dakota Wesleyan at Northwestern

• PREVIEW
• BOXSCORE

TONIGHT’S OPPONENT

The Tigers enter tonight’s contest with a 2-2 overall record and like Northwestern, are making their GPAC debut in tonight’s match. They opened their 2008 season at the Oklahoma City University Classic where they defeated St. Gregory (3-0) and followed with a straight-set victory over Texas Wesleyan. Their losses were to Oklahoma Baptist (3-0) and the host school, Oklahoma City. Senior middle hitter Maria Wieneke led the Tigers at the net with 40 kills in the four matches while Morgan Carlson averaged 25 assists throughout the weekend. Dena Kopfmann, senior libero for the Tigers, led the back line with 50 digs.

Taking over the DWU volleyball program is first year Head Coach Eric Viney. Viney previously served as the head coach of the Oklahoma Panhandle State program for two years and was the graduate assistant for North Dakota State prior to that. He takes over a program that finished with a 6-23 record last season and 10-23 in 2006. Viney’s squad returns six regular rotation players from last year, including Dena Kopfmann who earned honorable mention all-GPAC honors. Kopfmann ranked second in the league last year with 56 aces and was seventh in digs (4.9). Wieneke (2.8 k/set) and Jen Miner (2.0 k/set) are the top returning hitters while Jayna Morrill ranked second on the team with 45 blocks last season.

RED RAIDER NOTES

Northwestern enters tonight’s contest with a 4-0 record, earning four wins this past weekend at the Red Raider Classic. They did not drop a set during the weekend as they defeated Mayville State, Black Hills State, Grand View and #23 Olivet Nazarene. Randa Hulstein (3.9 k/set) and Hillary Hanno (3.7 k/set) led the Red Raiders at the net as the two combined to hit .439 for the weekend. Kate Buyert averaged 1.9 kills per set and led the team with 13 blocks. Kaitlin Beaver lofted up 11.7 assists per set and served a team-best 10 aces. Janna Bloemendaal and Rylee Hulstein led the defense with 4.9 and 4.8 digs, respectively.

The Red Raiders are coming off a 31-12 season in 2007 in which they earned their second straight national tournament appearance and lost in the Elite Eight round to national runner-up California Baptist. Coach Van Den Bosch, in his fourth season (88-29), returns eight rotation players from that squad, including Kaitlin Beaver and Rachel Gosselink, who both earned first team all-GPAC honors. Randa Hulstein and Hillary Hanno earned second team all-GPAC honors and Janna Bloemendaal led the team with 3.9 digs per game.

COMING UP

The Red Raiders will travel to Omaha, Neb. this weekend to play in the College of Saint Mary’s Classic. They will play Southern Nazarene (Okla.) on Saturday morning at 10:00am followed by a showdown with third-ranked Concordia (Calif.) at 2:00 pm. Northwestern will then continue GPAC play on Tuesday, Sept. 9 against Morningside in Sioux City.