Bison Host Jacks Friday Needing Win and Help to Make Summit League Tourney

THIS WEEK:  The North Dakota State women's volleyball team hosts South Dakota State at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9, at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse (1,206) in Fargo.  NDSU (11-16, 7-8) is tied for sixth in The Summit League and needs a victory over SDSU (16-12, 8-7) and help from around the league to qualify for next week's four-team Summit League tournament being played at NDSU.

TICKETS & PARKING:  Tickets for NDSU home volleyball matches are available in advance at the Bison Sports Arena ticket office, online at GoBison.com/tickets, or by telephone toll free at (888) 231-NDSU.  General admission tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for youth ages 3-17, and reserved tickets are $10.  Game day tickets are sold at the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse.  Doors open 1 hour prior to the match.  Free parking after 4:30 p.m. is available in the CF and SF lots adjacent to the Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse, Visitors Lot E, and the RF lot south of the Bison Sports Arena.

ON THE WEB:  Live video of all NDSU home volleyball matches is available by subscription to NDSU All Access on GoBison.com.  Prices are $9.95 monthly, $29.95 every four months and $79.95 annually.  This year's webcasts will be produced by the Bison Information Network with Ryan Nelson calling the play-by-play.  Games will re-air on SU TV channel 84 and will be available to NDSU All Access subscribers on-demand.  Live stats for all NDSU home games are available on GoBison.com free of charge and also through the NDSU Bison mobile app for Android, iPhone and iPod Touch.

THE SERIES:  This is the 85th meeting between North Dakota State and South Dakota State dating back to 1974.  NDSU leads the series 65-19 and has won eight of the last 10 matches.  The Bison have won six straight in Fargo.  SDSU won the first meeting this year 3-1 in Brookings.  Kaitlin Klingemann hit .345 with 14 kills and Kelli Fiegen hit .320 with 12 kills and five blocks to lead the Jackrabbits.  Brynn Joki had 20 kills and Andrea Henning made 18 digs for the Bison.

ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE:  The Jackrabbits have lost three straight to drop to 16-12 overall and are tied for fourth with an 8-7 record in The Summit League after losing 3-0 at South Dakota and 3-1 at Kansas City last weekend.  Senior middle blocker Kelli Fiegen leads the league in blocks per set (1.58) and is fifth in hitting (.299) and ninth in kills per set (3.30), but she has missed the last three matches due to injury.  Senior middle blocker Kaitlin Klingemann is second on the team with 2.57 kills per set.  Senior libero Shay Birath averages 5.25 digs per set and is second in the league stats with 5.58 digs per set.  Head coach Phil McDaniel (Culver-Stockton, 1996) has a 29-32 record in his second season at South Dakota State and a 86-75 career record including three seasons at Drake.

PLAYOFF SCENARIOS:  North Dakota State is in jeopardy of missing the Summit League women's volleyball tournament for the first time since beginning league play in 2007, but there are four scenarios that would put the Bison in the four-team tourney NDSU hosts Nov. 16-17:

-NDSU and South Dakota would qualify for the league tourney in the event of a five-way tie for third place at 8-8 with Oakland, South Dakota State and Kansas City by virtue of their 5-3 records among the four other opponents.

-NDSU and SDSU would qualify in a four-way tie for third place with Oakland and Kansas City with the Bison and Jackrabbits each 4-2 among the group of tied teams.

-NDSU would qualify in a four-way tie for fourth place at 8-8 with Kansas City, South Dakota State and South Dakota with a combined record of 4-2 against those teams and a 2-0 record over UMKC.

-NDSU would also qualify in a three-way tie for fourth place at 8-8 with South Dakota State and Kansas City with a 3-1 record against those teams.

-If NDSU beats SDSU, but Kansas City wins at Omaha and Oakland wins one or both of its matches at IUPUI and Western Illinois, UMKC and Oakland would advance.

LAMBERTSON IN NCAA STATS:  North Dakota State senior middle hitter Megan Lambertson ranked 34th nationally with a .376 hitting percentage in the NCAA Division I stats through Sunday, Nov. 4.  Lambertson leads The Summit League by 65 points with a .396 mark in league play and has a .385 career hitting percentage that is on pace to crush the NDSU school record of .335 set by Jen Miller (1979-82).  In the NCAA team stats, NDSU ranked 40th nationally with 17.18 digs per set.

SUMMIT LEAGUE LEADERS:  North Dakota State has five players among the Summit League leaders in the league-only stats through last weekend.  Brynn Joki ranks seventh in kills per set (3.42), Megan Lambertson is first in hitting (.396), eighth in kills per set (3.31), tied for eighth in service aces per set (0.25) and ninth in blocks per set (0.88), Carissa Whalen is eighth in hitting (.270), Catherine Yager is third in assists per set (10.21), and Andrea Henning is eighth in digs per set (4.59).  In the team stats, NDSU is top half of the league ranked third in team hitting percentage (.211) and first in solo blocks (45).

HENNING FIFTH IN NDSU CAREER DIGS:  North Dakota State senior libero Andrea Henning became the 20th player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs in the season opener at Northern Illinois.  Henning has 1,469 digs and ranks fifth on the NDSU career list.

NDSU Career Digs
1.  2083, Kari Fagnan, 2004-07
2.  1561, Charleen Anderson, 1994-98
3.  1511, Rachael Schmieg, 1998-01
4.  1489, Janet Cobbs, 1985-88
5.  1469, Andrea Henning, 2009-12

JOKI SEVENTH MEMBER OF NDSU 1,000-1,000 CLUB:  Senior outside hitter Brynn Joki is the seventh NDSU player to reach 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career.  Joki got her 1,000th kill Sept. 16 at South Dakota State and ranks 16th in school history with 1,193.  She got her 1,000th dig in the Oct. 6 home win over Kansas City and ranks 14th all-time with 1,125.

LAMBERTSON OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK:  North Dakota State senior middle hitter Megan Lambertson was named Summit League co-Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 1 after hitting .508 and averaging 4.11 kills per set as the Bison split a two-match road trip.  Lambertson had 16 kills in a 3-1 win at Oakland and followed with a career-high 21 kills and nine digs in the 3-2 loss at Fort Wayne.

HENNING POSTS SCHOOL-RECORD 36 DIGS:  Senior libero Andrea Henning set an NDSU four-set match record with 36 digs in the Sept. 8 victory over Drake.  She passed the previous mark of 34 digs by Kari Fagnan against Western Illinois in 2007 and it was the second largest overall dig total in school history behind Fagnan's 42 at UTEP in 2007.

ALL-TOURNAMENT SELECTIONS:  North Dakota State's Carissa Whalen, Brynn Joki and Megan Lambertson earned all-tournament team honors during the first three weeks of play.  Whalen was all-tourney at Northern Illinois where she hit a team-best .388 with 11 blocks in losses to Northern Illinois, New Mexico State and Wichita State.  Joki was all-tournament at Northern Colorado where she averaged 3.80 kills and 3.10 digs per set in a win over Air Force and losses to Oklahoma and Northern Colorado.  Joki and Lambertson both were picked at Wisconsin where Joki  averaged 3.92 kills and 4.92 digs per set and Lambertson hit .359 with 30 kills and 14 blocks in three matches.

TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:  North Dakota State's non-conference schedule is among the toughest it has faced since beginning Division I play.  Five of the first seven matches were against NCAA tournament teams from a year ago, two more await in November, and 12 matches are against teams ranked in the top 100 of last year's NCAA Rating Percentage Index.  Minnesota was ranked 10th in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and Pepperdine has also been among the Top 25 all season.  Oklahoma and Wichita State were receiving votes in the poll the week of their matches with NDSU.  The Bison ranked as high as 40th before finishing 42nd in last year's NCAA RPI.

LAMBERTSON SELECTED TO A2 PROGRAM:  North Dakota State senior middle hitter Megan Lambertson was one of 48 athletes selected by USA Volleyball to participate in last summer's U.S. Women's National A2 Team Program.  South Dakota State middle hitter Kelli Fiegen was the only other Summit League player selected.  NDSU's Brynn Joki was an alternate.

BISON PICKED FIRST IN SUMMIT:  For the fourth straight year, North Dakota State was the preseason favorite to win The Summit League in a vote of the league's head coaches.  NDSU collected six of the nine first-place votes ahead of second-place Fort Wayne, which had the other three votes.  Oakland and South Dakota State tied for third place, IUPUI was fifth, and South Dakota, Kansas City, Western Illinois and Omaha rounded out the poll in order.

FOUR STRAIGHT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS:  North Dakota State won its fourth straight Summit League regular-season title last year with a 16-2 record in league play.  NDSU won outright titles with a 16-0 record in 2008 and an 18-0 mark in 2009 before tying with Fort Wayne for the 2010 championship with a 14-4 mark.  NDSU tied for second place at 12-4 in 2007.

THE COACH:  Kari Thompson (Green Bay, 2003) has a 46-27 record in her second full season as head coach at North Dakota State.  Thompson was NDSU's top assistant her first 4 1/2 seasons before taking over as interim head coach in October 2010.  She went 9-2 in her interim role and has guided the Bison to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.  Thompson was a 2010 recipient of the American Volleyball Coaches Association's "Thirty Under 30" award recognizing the top young coaches in the country.  She was a three-year letterwinner at Green Bay, stayed one year as a volunteer assistant with the Phoenix, and spent two years as a graduate assistant for volleyball operations at Alabama before coming to NDSU in 2006.

THE SUMMIT LEAGUE:  This is North Dakota State's sixth year in The Summit League after reclassifying from Division II and spending three seasons as a Division I independent.  Other members are Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI); University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC); University of Nebraska-Omaha; Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.; University of South Dakota; South Dakota State University; and Western Illinois University.  The Summit League dropped from 10 teams to nine this year with the addition of Omaha from Division II and the departure of Southern Utah to the Big Sky Conference and Oral Roberts to the Southland Conference.