Northwestern at William Penn

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Game Time... The Northwestern College volleyball team travels to Lamoni, Iowa to compete in the 14-team Pizza Shack Invite hosted by Graceland University. The Red Raiders are featured in the gold pool with William Penn (Iowa) and Missouri Baptist, a team that received votes in the most recent NAIA poll. Northwestern is 7-1 this season and moved up two spots to fifth in the rankings, their highest national rating since the early 1990's.

The Tournament Field... Half of the 14 teams that comprise the tournament field were ranked in the latest NAIA poll released on Sept. 9. Northwestern, ranked fifth, is the highest team, followed by Columbia (Mo.) at ninth, Lindenwood (Mo.) at 14th and Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) at 24. Three teams received votes: Indiana Wesleyan, William Jewell and Missouri Baptist. Follow along on the Tournament website at this link: Pizza Shack Invite.

Scouting Report... The Lady Statesmen of William Penn come into the tournament with a 6-6 record. They opened the season with four straight losses but have won five of their past six matches. WPU has lost to a pair of GPAC teams (USF, Morningside) this season.

First year coach Jeremy Wise takes over a program that won the Midwest Collegiate Conference Championship last season with a 22-16 overall record, 7-1 in MCC play. Wise comes to the Statesmen after 10 years at Urbana College where he was the winningest coach in the program's history with 202 wins.

Coach Wise's club will be led by honorable mention NAIA All-American Sheila Mercado, a 5-8 senior setter from San Sebastian, Puerto Rico. Mercado led the team in assists last season where she also earned all-conference honors. Sophomore Emily Stanton, a 5-9 outside hitter, set a school record with 497 kills last season as a freshmen and headlines the list of hitters for WPU. She earned first team all-MCC honors last season. On the right side, 5-11 sophomore Morgan Bailey ranked second on the team with 64 blocks and will be another option for the Statesmen attack. April Young, a 6-0 senior, patrols the middle and returns after leading the team in 2007 in hitting percentage (.258) and blocks (118). She earned first team all-league honors as well. Caitlin Hadden, a 5-3 sophomore, returns in the backrow after posting 426 digs last season.

Missouri Baptist began the season with four straight losses, all to ranked teams (Georgetown, Lindenwood, Columbia and Bellevue), but defeated Hannibal-La Grange in their last match for their first win. The Spartans are 1-4 coming into the tournament and received votes in the last NAIA poll. John Yehling is in his fourth season as the head of the Missouri Baptist women's program and has a 103-30 overall mark during that time.

MBU, from the American Midwest Conference, is led by third team All-American, 6-0 senior Brittany Lukasek. She is averaging a team-best 1.1 blocks per set. Freshman Lindsay Vlassos is the team leader in kills with 47 (2.6/set) and Mandy Wolf leads the team in both digs (5.3p/set) and aces (4). Chelsea Grimshaw, a 5-11 freshman setter, is averaging 9.6 assists per set.

Last Time Out... William Penn opened their MCC season with a 3-1 victory over Ashford last Wednesday evening (25-17, 27-25, 23-25 and 25-14). The Statesmen hit .204 for the match compared to Ashford at .119. Emily Stanton led the attack with 15 kills and hit .355 for the match. Shantelle Brown added 11 kills and April Young posted eight.

Missouri Baptist earned their first win of the season with a 3-0 win over conference foe Hannibal-LaGrange. Individual game scores were: 25-20, 25-17 and 25-18. The Spartans closed the first set on a 12-2 run to earn the come-from-behind win. In the next two sets, MBU never trailed and cruised to the straight set victory.

The Northwestern College volleyball team earned a huge victory last night as they defeated Morningside, 3-1, in a GPAC showdown that featured ranked teams. Northwestern hit .229 for the match compared to .145 for the Mustangs. The Red Raiders had a good night at the net with 21 total blocks, led by Randa Hulstein and Rylee Hulstein with five and four, respectively. Hillary Hanno totaled a game-high 18 kills while Randa Hulstein and Kate Buyert added 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Rachel Gosselink lofted up 47 assists and had 13 digs. Janna Bloemendaal led the team with 15 digs. Kaitlin Beaver totaled nine kills, six assists and six digs.

Red Raider Notes... As previously noted, Northwestern moved up two spots in this week's national rating to fifth, their highest ranking since the early 1990's. The Red Raiders are 2-0 in the GPAC, 7-1 overall, with their only loss to third-ranked Concordia (Calif.). They are third in the league with a .301 attack percentage and are the league's best in opponent attack percentage at -.005. They are second in blocks (2.8) and third in aces (1.9).

Individually, three Red Raiders rank in the top 10 in hitting percentage: Kate Buyert (3rd-.38), Hillary Hanno (7th-.343) and Randa Hulstein (8th-.338). Hanno and Hulstein lead the team in kills with 3.2 and 2.6, respectively. Kaitlin Beaver is second in the GPAC in assists (9.9 p/set) and first in aces (17-.74 p/set). Janna Bloemendaal is fourth in the GPAC in digs (5.04) and earned conference Libero-of-the-Week honors this past week.

Next up... The Red Raiders will next play in a non-conference match on Wednesday, Sept. 17 against College of St. Mary's in Omaha, Neb. The match will begin at 7:00 pm.