Bison at IUPUI, Western Illinois This Week on Only Road Trip of Month

THIS WEEK:  The North Dakota State women's volleyball team (9-12, 5-4) plays its only two road matches of the month against IUPUI (14-8, 7-3) at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 19, at The Jungle (1,215) in Indianapolis, Ind., and Western Illinois (9-12, 3-7) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, at Brophy Hall (800) in Macomb, Ill.  The Bison went 4-1 on their recent five-match homestand and close out the month at home next weekend against Fort Wayne and Oakland.

THE SERIES:  Friday will be the 14th meeting between North Dakota State and IUPUI since 2006.  NDSU leads the series 12-1.  IUPUI won 21-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-23 in Fargo on Sept. 22 behind 14 kills from Moriah Fair and 32 digs by Beth Howard.  Brynn Joki had 16 kills and Megan Lambertson hit .414 with 15 kills and made four blocks for the Bison.  NDSU is 6-0 in Indianapolis.  The teams have gone five sets only once in the previous 13 meetings with NDSU winning 3-2 in Fargo last season.

Saturday will be the 13th meeting between North Dakota State and Western Illinois dating back to 2005.  NDSU leads the series 9-3.  Western Illinois was 0-5 in Fargo before its five-set win Sept. 21.  Samantha Fournier had 17 kills and Bridget Murphy made 32 digs for the Leathernecks.  NDSU's Megan Lambertson hit .463 with 21 kills and only two errors and fellow middle hitter Carissa Whalen hit .364 with 11 kills.  The Bison have won four straight in Macomb after a five-set loss in November 2007.

ABOUT IUPUI:  The Jaguars are 14-8 overall and second in The Summit League with a 7-3 record after winning 3-1 at South Dakota and losing 3-1 at Kansas City last weekend.  IUPUI leads The Summit League with 14.42 kills per set in league play and ranks second in team hitting percentage (.222), assists (13.47 aps), digs (19.29 dps) and blocks (2.39 bps).  Junior outside hitter Moriah Fair leads the Jaguars' attack with 3.26 kills per set.  Senior middle Bethany Fogler leads the team in hitting (.317) and total blocks (101) and is first in the league stats for blocks (55) and blocks per set (1.45).  Sophomore defensive specialist Beth Howard averages a team-high 4.89 digs per set and is second in the league-only stats with 5.58 dps.  Head coach Steve Payne (Northern Illinois, 1987) has a 182-266 record in his 16th season at IUPUI.

ABOUT WESTERN ILLINOIS:  The Fighting Leathernecks are 9-12 overall and seventh in The Summit League with a 3-7 record after losing 3-0 at Kansas City and winning 3-0 at South Dakota last weekend.  Sophomore outside hitter Samantha Fournier leads the Leathernecks with 3.41 kills per set and senior middle Katie Hosteng is hitting a team-best .323.  Junior setter Sarah Fetter averages 10.52 assists per set overall and is second in the league-only stats with 10.68 per set.  Senior defensive specialist Bridget Murphy leads the team with 4.84 digs per set.  The Leathernecks are led by first-year head coach April Hall (Tiffin, 2006).

BISON FINISH 4-1 HOMESTAND:  North Dakota State wrapped up a five-match homestand with a 3-0 win over Omaha last Saturday and a 3-1 win over Drake on Monday night.  Megan Lambertson hit .600 with 10 kills and four service aces against Omaha and Carissa Whalen hit .455 with a career high 12 kills and four blocks as NDSU won its third straight Summit League match.  Andrea Henning made 24 digs to lead four players in double-figures as the Bison posted a season-high 100 digs against Drake.  Lambertson hit .516 with 18 kills and Brynn Joki had 18 kills and five blocks.

LAMBERTSON IN NCAA STATS:  North Dakota State senior middle hitter Megan Lambertson has hit .500 or better in five of the last seven matches and ranked 32th nationally with a .382 hitting percentage in the NCAA Division I stats through Sunday, Oct. 14.  Lambertson leads The Summit League by 88 points with a .440 mark in league play and has a .390 career hitting percentage that is on pace to crush the NDSU school record of .335 set by Jen Miller (1979-82).

NCAA RPI:  North Dakota State dropped 16 spots to No. 147 in the third NCAA Rating Percentage Index released Monday, Oct. 15 after checking in at No. 143 and No. 131 the first two weeks.  NDSU is sixth among Summit League members behind Fort Wayne (62), Oakland (106), Kansas City (133), IUPUI (136) and South Dakota State (145).  The Bison are 0-7 against teams rated in the top 100 including losses to Minnesota (10), Oklahoma (19), Wichita State (36), Wisconsin (46), Northern Colorado (73), New Mexico State (96).

NCAA ATTENDANCE:  North Dakota State ranked 40th in the nation for average home attendance in the sixth NCAA Division I attendance report issued Monday, Oct. 15.  The Bison were averaging 1,039 fans over six matches before drawing a season-low 437 to Monday's non-conference win over Drake, which was the smallest NDSU home crowd since October 2005 against Texas-Pan American.  NDSU finished 51st last year drawing 11,543 fans over 12 dates for an average of 962.

SUMMIT LEAGUE LEADERS:  North Dakota State has five players among the Summit League leaders in the league-only stats through Wednesday, Oct. 17.  Brynn Joki ranks fifth in kills per set (3.77), Megan Lambertson is first in hitting (.440) and seventh in kills per set (3.49), Carissa Whalen is ninth in hitting (.293), Catherine Yager is third in assists per set (10.29), and Andrea Henning is second in service aces per set (0.34) and eighth in digs per set (4.40).  In the team stats, NDSU is top half of the league ranked fourth in team hitting percentage (.207).

HENNING SEVENTH 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 1,352 digs and ranks seventh 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.  1393, Sheila Parrish, 2003-06
6.  1382, Kelly Lopez, 2005-09
7.  1352, 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 17th in school history with 1,123.  She got her 1,000th dig in the Oct. 6 home win over Kansas City and ranks 19th all-time with 1,037.

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 44-23 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.