The week ahead:
Bison Soccer Treks to Denver for Summit League Showdown with No. 14 Pioneers
     After falling to South Dakota State Saturday, Oct. 19, 1-0, the North Dakota State women's soccer team will look to bounce back when they travel to Denver to face the 14th-ranked Pioneers in a Summit League match Sunday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m. CT.
 
The Series against Denver
     Sunday's 1 p.m. match with the Pioneers will be the first-ever meeting.
 
Against Summit League Opponents
     The Bison have an all-time record of 33-21-5 against Summit League opponents.
    
About the Denver Pioneers
     Denver enters the week at an impressive 14-1-1 overall and are an unblemished 5-0 in Summit League play. The Pioneers are a perfect 7-0 at home, 6-1-1 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites this season. This is the Pioneers' first season in The Summit League. Denver is ranked 14th in the latest NSCAA Division I Coaches Poll released Tuesday, Oct. 22.
     The Pioneers are paced in scoring by Kristen Hamilton with 10 goals and 11 assists for a team-high 31 points. Hamilton leads the league goals, assists and points (31). Nicholette DiGiacomo is second on the team in scoring with nine goals. She is the reigning Summit League Co-Offensive Player of the Week. Nine other Pioneers have tallied at least one goal on the season.
     Defensively, Denver is led by starting goalkeeper and Summit League Defensive Player of the Week, Cassidy Rey. She has started 13-14 matches and has only allowed six goals the entire season for a goals-against average (GAA) of 0.46. Rey has 56 saves and is 11-1-1 in goal with six shutouts. She is ranked second in NCAA Division I in save percentage, saving 90.6 percent of shots-faced.
     As a team, Denver averages 2.5 goals-per-game while limiting its opponents to just 0.44 per-game. The Pioneers pace the league in goals with 40 and assists with 39. They lead all of NCAA Division I in save percentage (0.913) and are second in W-L-T percentage (0.906).  
 
Catching Up with the Bison
     The Bison went 0-1 in Summit League action last week, falling to South Dakota State Oct. 19 in Brookings, 1-0. NDSU is now 7-8 overall and 3-2 in The Summit League.
     Caylee Costello netted the game-winner for SDSU in the 76th-minute. The Bison nearly equalized in the 84th-minute but Anisha Kinnarath's shot glanced off the right-post and Lauren Miller's rebound shot was saved by Jackrabbit goalkeeper Nicole Inskeep.
     Sierra Bonham went the full 90 in goal for the Bison, making five saves, but took the loss to fall to 6-7 on the season. NDSU was outshot in the match by SDSU, 15-8.
 
A Look at the Numbers
     Through 15 matches, NDSU is paced offensively by Kinnarath and Lauren Miller. Miller has team-highs in goals scored (7), assists (4) and points (18). Anisha Kinnarath is second in goals scored for the Bison with six and has one assist. Katie Tallas has two goals and an assist while Tristyn Walczak, Meghan Johnston and Mikayla Jacobson each have one goal. Amy Yang has two assists. Olivia Norman, Steph Jacobson and Jaclyn Scanlan each have an assist through 12 matches.
     In goal, Sierra Bonham has made 14 starts in 15 matches. She has 81 saves in 1205 minutes between the pipes and has allowed 22 goals for a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.64. Bonham has a record of 6-7-0 with four shutouts. Fellow NDSU goalkeeper Katie McCormick has seen action in three matches, making one start. She has nine saves in 168 minutes in goal and has given up four goals for a GAA of 2.14. McCormick's overall record is 1-1-0.
 
 NDSU in The Summit League Statistics
     The Bison are fourth in goals (18) and tied for fifth in assists (11) in The Summit League entering the week.  NDSU is sixth in shots, attempting 158. North Dakota State leads the league in saves with an average of 6.13 per-match.
     Individually, Lauren Miller is third in the league in goals scored (7) and tied for fourth in assists (4). She is third in total points with 18. Anisha Kinnarath is tied for fourth in total goals with six. Both Kinnarath and Miller are tied atop the league in game-winning goals with three each. Sierra Bonham leads the league in total saves (81) and saves-per-game (5.79). She is third in shutouts with four.
 
NDSU against ranked opponents
     The match against 14th-ranked Denver Sunday, Oct. 27 will be the Bison's first match against a ranked opponent since a 1-1 draw in double overtime (fell 4-3 in PK shootout) against then No. 9 Texas A&M on Nov. 12, 2010 in the NCAA tournament first round. NDSU's only other contest against a ranked opponent as a Division I soccer program was Sept. 6, 2009 at Minnesota, a match that saw the Bison fall to the 19th-ranked Golden Gophers, 4-0.
 
Home Sweet Home
     The Bison have compiled an overall record of 97-26-5 in Fargo since the program began in 1995. NDSU went unbeaten at home in 1996 (8-0), 2005 (7-0) and 2011 (7-0-1). This season marks the Bison's first season playing on historic Dacotah Field. NDSU has compiled an impressive 5-2 record at home so far this season.
 
Following the Herd
     For the latest information on NDSU Bison soccer visit www.GoBison.com. All home Bison soccer matches have live statistics provided by Stat Broadcast. Please check the soccer "schedule" page for live stat links. In addition to live statistics, live video is available online on a pay-per-view basis at www.GoBison.com/showcase for every NDSU home match.
 
Up Next
    The Bison return home to Dacotah Field for the final match of the regular season against Fort Wayne. First kick is set for Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.

Head Coach Mark Cook (Alfred (N.Y.), 1993)
     Mark Cook is in his second season as the head coach of the North Dakota State University Bison women's soccer team and has a career record of 15-18-0. Cook led the Bison to an 8-10-0 overall record and a third place finish in The Summit League with a record of 5-3-0 in his inaugural season as the bench boss last year. He also led the Bison to their fourth straight bid to the conference postseason tournament with the third place finish in 2012.
     Cook came to NDSU after serving as the Director of Coaching at the Minnesota Thunder Academy for 11 years, where he transformed a program with just four teams to one of the premier soccer club programs in the Twin Cities with 65 teams as of 2012. Under his leadership, Minnesota Thunder Academy placed almost 85 percent of all club graduates in collegiate soccer programs.
     He graduated from Alfred (N.Y.) University in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in communications.
 
The Opposing Coach
 
Jeff Hooker (UCLA, '87) - Denver
     Jeff Hooker is in his 22nd season as the head coach for the Pioneers. He has a career record at Denver of 287-104-37, a winning percentage of .714. Hooker has garnered nine Coach of the Year awards while coaching at Denver and has led the Pioneers to five Sun Belt Conference regular season titles, seven Sun Belt conference tournament titles and one Western Athletic Conference regular season crown.
 
The Summit League
     In its fourth decade of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 120,000 at eight institutions, including three located in top 60 U.S. metro populations and two land-grant universities. Member institutions include: Denver (University of Denver), Fort Wayne (Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), North Dakota State University, Omaha (University of Nebraska Omaha), the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference, The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced eight NCAA Champions, 62 All-Americans and 50 Academic All-America selections.