North Dakota State Faces No. 6 Minnesota Friday in the Diet Coke Classic
8/30/2005 5:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
The North Dakota State volleyball team (0-3) is scheduled to play No. 6-ranked Minnesota (0-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, in the Diet Coke Classic tournament at the Sports Pavilion (5,700) in Minneapolis. NDSU is scheduled to continue tournament play Saturday, Sept. 3, with matches against Xavier (3-0) at 10 a.m. and UCF (0-1) at 5 p.m.
THE SERIES: This will be the ninth meeting between North Dakota State and Minnesota in a series that dates back to 1973. The Golden Gophers lead the series 7-1. NDSU's only win was 3-1 in Minneapolis on Sept. 24, 1984. The teams have not met since 1986. ... North Dakota State has not played Xavier or UCF.
ABOUT MINNESOTA: Friday's match with North Dakota State will be the season opener for the Golden Gophers. Minnesota lost to Stanford in last year's NCAA national championship match and currently has a No. 6 ranking in the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 preseason poll. Three starters and six total letterwinners return from last year's 33-5 team that tied for second in the Big Ten. Head coach Mike Hebert is 232-82 in his first nine seasons at Minnesota. He has coached for 29 years at the collegiate level and has an 804-339 record.
ABOUT XAVIER: The Musketeers are 3-0 after defeating UNC Wilmington, South Carolina State and Air Force all in straight sets last weekend in Wilmington. Xavier was picked to finish third out of five teams in the Atlantic 10's West Division. Five starters and 11 letterwinners are back from last year's 20-11 team that tied for first place in the A-10 with a 12-2 conference record. Head coach Floyd Deaton is 215-185 in his 16th season at Xavier.
ABOUT UCF: The Golden Knights are 0-1 after a five-game loss at Florida A&M last Friday. UCF will play at Jacksonville on Wednesday night before traveling to Minnesota. UCF was 8-15 last year and 5-5 for fifth place in Conference USA. Head coach Meg Colado is 111-67 in her seventh season at UCF.
VOLLEYBALL IN THE BSA: Collegiate volleyball returns to the Bison Sports Arena for one weekend this season. North Dakota State will host the Doublewood Inn Classic tournament in the BSA on September 9-10 when Sam Houston State, Washington, South Dakota State and Wisconsin-Green Bay come to town.
It will be the first time since the 1988 NCAA Division II national tournament that volleyball matches will have been staged in the new fieldhouse. The Bison are expecting large crowds for an exciting weekend of play featuring an NCAA semifinal team from a year ago, the University of Washington. Seating capacity in the BSA is 6,000.
THOUSAND MARKS IN SIGHT: Reaching 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career is not a question of if, but rather when Sheila Parrish will do it. The junior outside hitter from Fargo has the rare opportunity to crack both marks this season at the pace she set a year ago. Parrish has 725 kills and 793 digs through two-plus seasons. She was over 400 in both categories last year alone.
Only five other members of the North Dakota State 1,000-kills club have also reached 1,000 digs. They are Janet Cobbs (1985-1988), Angie Converse (1990-1993), Brenda Schultz (1987-1990), Rachael Schmieg (1998-2001) and Chrystal Olson (1994-1997).
SETTER CLIMBING CHART: Sophomore setter Emily Luensmann has jumped into seventh place on North Dakota State's all-time career kill assists chart. Luensmann recorded 57 assists last weekend at the Marquette Kick-Off and stands at 1,326 in her career. She passed Kathleen Hegg (1998-2001) who had 1,319 assists. Becky Schulze (1986-1989) is sixth with 3,411.
TEAM ACADEMIC AWARD: North Dakota State University was among 274 college and high school volleyball teams named by the American Volleyball Coaches Association in August as recipients of the 2004-05 Game Plan/AVCA Team Academic Award.
The award honors college and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom. North Dakota State, which was honored for the seventh time, maintained a 3.37 grade-point average in 2004-05.
LAST YEAR OF RECLASSIFICATION: The Bison are still without a conference affiliation, but NDSU is looking ahead to 2006 when its NCAA tournament eligibility begins, thanks to an NCAA ruling last September that North Dakota State could reclassify its volleyball and wrestling teams to Division I in three years instead of five. NDSU is on track to reclassify in all sports by 2008-09.
THE COACH: Zaundra Bina is in her 11th season as head coach at North Dakota State. Bina has a 252-91 record at NDSU and a career record of 385-145 including her five-year tenure at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. Bina guided NDSU to nine straight NCAA Division II playoff appearances from 1995 to 2003, including a national runner-up finish in 1998. She was a two-time North Central Conference all-academic selection for the Bison as a defensive specialist and outside hitter from 1982 to 1985.
