The week ahead:
Bison Tabbed No. 3 Seed in Summit League Women's Soccer Championship
     The North Dakota State women's soccer team will be the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Summit League Women's Soccer Championship and will face No. 2 seed South Dakota State in the opening round Friday, Nov. 8, at approximately 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET) at the Hefner Soccer Complex in Fort Wayne, Ind.
     This is the second-straight year the Bison have earned the three seed in the tournament and the fifth tournament appearance for Bison soccer in the past six years.
     NDSU finished the regular season with an overall record of 8-9 and were 4-3 in The Summit League while the SDSU Jackrabbits were 11-4-2 overall and 6-1 in league play.
 
The Series against South Dakota State
     Friday's Summit League Tournament opening round match with the Jackrabbits will be the 17th meeting all-time in the series. NDSU and SDSU are tied in the series at 7-7-2 after the Jackrabbits defeated the Bison earlier this season in Brookings, 1-0, on Oct. 19.
    
About the South Dakota State Jackrabbits
     The Jackrabbits finished the regular season with an 11-4-2 overall record and were second in The Summit League with a record of 6-1.
     Offensively, SDSU is paced by  Alyssa Brazil with a team-high five goals and 12 points. Megan Kingston has dished out a team-high three assists. Overall, the Jackrabbits have scored 24 goals with 14 assists.
     Defensively, SDSU's primary goalkeeper is Nicole Inskeep. She has only allowed 12 goals and have a goals-against average (GAA) of 0.68. Inskeep has 63 saves and is 11-4-2 in goal with 11 shutouts.
     As a team, the Jackrabbits average 1.41 goals-per-game while holding their opponents to just 0.71 per-game. SDSU averages 14.8 shots compared to only 8.9 from its opponents.
     SDSU is led by head coach Lang Wedemeyer. In his 14th season, Wedemeyer has compiled a career record of 118-97-28.
 
Catching Up with the Bison
     The Bison completed the 2013 regular season with a 3-1 victory over the Fort Wayne Mastodons Friday, Nov. 1, at Dacotah Field. The win clinched a Summit League Tournament berth for NDSU. Lauren Miller scored a pair of goals and Steph Jacobson added another.
     Miller's first goal occurred in the ninth minute off an Anisha Kinnarath assist while Jacobson provided the go-ahead goal for NDSU in the 56th-minute. Miller added an insurance goal off a Lizzie Lukas assist in the 68th-minute to seal the 3-1 win for NDSU.
 
A Look at the Numbers
     Through 17 matches, NDSU is paced offensively by Lauren Miller. She leads the team in goals (9), assists (5) and points (23). Kinnarath is second in scoring for NDSU with seven goals. Katie Tallas has two goals and an assist while Steph Jacobson, Tristyn Walczak, Meghan Johnston and Mikayla Jacobson each have one goal. Amy Yang and Kinnarath each have two assists. Lizzie Lukas, Olivia Norman, Steph Jacobson and Jaclyn Scanlan each have an assist through 17 matches.
     In goal, Sierra Bonham has made 16 starts in 17 matches. She has 89 saves in 1385 minutes between the pipes and has allowed 25 goals for a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.62. Bonham has a record of 7-8-0 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 (22) and tied for fourth in assists (14) in The Summit League entering the week.  NDSU is sixth in shots, attempting 174. North Dakota State is fourth in the league in saves with an average of 5.88 per-match.
     Individually, Miller ranks in the top-three in every offensive statistical category except assists per-game. She is third in goals (9), assists (5), points (23), shots (50), shots per-game (2.94), points per-game (1.35), goals per-game (0.53) and tied for third with teammate Anisha Kinnarath in game-winning goals (3). She is fourth in assists per-game (0.29). Kinnarath is tied for fourth in the league for total goals (7) and is fourth in goals per-game (0.41).
 
Miller Tabbed Summit League Offensive Player of the Week for Third Time This Season
     North Dakota State women's soccer freshman midfielder Lauren Miller was named The Summit League Offensive Player of the Week for her performance Oct. 28-Nov. 3. It's the third Offensive Player of the Week honor for the St. Louis Park, Minn. native. Miller scored two goals in the regular season finale against Fort Wayne Friday, Nov. 1, helping the Bison to a 3-1 victory that clinched them the third seed in the upcoming Summit League Women's Soccer Championship. Her first goal occurred in the ninth minute as she received a pass from Anisha Kinnarath and netted it past the Fort Wayne goalie. The freshman added an insurance goal in the 69th minute off a pass from Lizzie Lukas, recording her third brace of the season. For the week, Miller had four points (two goals) and four shots with three being on goal. She now has a team-high nine goals, five assists and 23 points this season.
 
Home Sweet Home
     The Bison have compiled an overall record of 98-26-5 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 was an impressive 6-2 at home this season.
 
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 16-19-0. 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.
 
Summit League Women's Soccer Championship Schedule
Friday, Nov. 8
4 p.m. - Match One: (1) Denver vs. (4) Fort Wayne
7 p.m. - Match Two: (2) South Dakota State vs. (3) North Dakota State
 
Sunday, Nov. 10
11 a.m. - Championship Match: Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2
 
All times Central
 
Scouting the Other Teams in the Tournament
Denver University Pioneers: The 14th-ranked Denver Pioneers are the tournament's top-seed after finishing the regular season with an overall record of 16-1-1. Denver was a perfect 7-0 in Summit League play, claiming the league's regular season title. The Pioneers only surrendered one goal in league play this season (Oct. 27 against North Dakota State).
     Offensively, Denver is paced by Nicholette Digiacomo and Kristen Hamilton. Digiacomo finished the regular season with a team-high 11 goals and had five assists while Hamilton scored 10 goals and dished out a team-high 11 assists for a team-high 31 points.
     Defensively, Denver's primary goalkeeper is Cassidy Rey. She has only allowed seven goals the entire season for an impressive goals-against average (GAA) of 0.48. Rey has 62 saves and is 13-1-1 in goal with 6.5 shutouts. The Denver defense has only allowed eight goals total this season.
     As a team, the Pioneers average 2.56 goals-per-game while holding their opponents to just 0.44 per-game. Denver averages 17.8 shots compared to 9.1 for its opponents.
      Denver's head coach is Jeff Hooker. In his 22nd season, Hooker has compiled a career record of 287-104-37.
 
Fort Wayne Mastodons: The Fort Wayne Mastodons are the tournament's fourth seed after completing the regular season with an overall record of 6-11-1. The Mastodons were 3-3-1 in Summit League play.
     Offensively, Fort Wayne is led by Gaby Romo and Andie Lazzerini. Romo has a team-high four goals with one assist while Lazzerini has three goals and two assists. Mayson Whitman has a team-high three assists for Fort Wayne.
     Defensively, the Mastodons primary keeper is Sam Pavlika. She has allowed 32 goals for a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.74. Pavlika has 98 saves and is 6-11-1 in goal with five shutouts.
     As a team, Fort Wayne averages 0.67 goals-per-game while its opponents average 1.78 per-game. The Mastodons average only 9.4 shots compared to 15.4 by their opponents. Fort Wayne has 14 yellow cards on the season.
     The head coach for Fort Wayne is Margaret Saurin. In her sixth season, Saurin has compiled a career record of 29-71-5.
 
Following The Herd in The Summit League Tournament
     All Summit League Women's Soccer Championship matches will feature free live statistics and a pay-per-view video webcast. All match coverage tools can be accessed at The Summit League Women's Soccer Championship web site and GoBison.com. 
     Twitter will also be utilized during the tournament for match coverage. The official Twitter handle for The Summit League Championships is @summitchamps. @NDSUsoccer will also be providing updates via Twitter for the tournament. 
 
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.