Veteran Offense Returns as North Dakota State Seeks Fourth Straight Summit League Title
8/23/2011 5:00:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
The North Dakota State women's volleyball team returns to the court this weekend at Missouri to begin its quest for a fourth straight Summit League championship and a third trip to the NCAA tournament.
While those goals aren't different from previous seasons, the Bison sideline has a different look under the leadership of Kari Thompson and two new assistants after Thompson finished last year in an interim role.
After guiding the Bison to a 9-2 finish and their second NCAA tournament appearance in three seasons, Thompson says her program has finally settled into a comfort zone.
"Six months ago there was still a lot of things up in the air and not established," Thompson said. "But I feel very comfortable. I think our girls are confident."
After being hired in a full-time capacity on January 27, Thompson added to her staff former Western Michigan assistant Jason Reed and former Upper Iowa head coach Shari Davis.
"What Shari and Jason both bring is experience," Thompson said. "It's exciting to see each day their perspective on the game and what they are going to bring to make us better."
North Dakota State returns four starters from last year's 20-11 team that tied for first place in The Summit League with a 14-4 mark. The Bison certainly feel pressure to repeat, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
"We talk with our players about that a lot," Thompson said. "There's pressure to continue and be at the top of our league and compete for that Summit League championship and make the NCAA tournament.
"But that's what we all want," she said. "So we don't view it as pressure, but more as support for the same goals that we have for ourselves."
North Dakota State continues to boast one of the most potent and veteran offenses in The Summit League this year with the return of middle hitters Chrissy Knuth and Megan Lambertson, and outside hitter Brynn Joki.
Knuth, a 6-foot senior from Brooklyn Park, Minn., made the All-Summit League first team for the third straight year after leading the Bison in kills and kills per set. She ranked sixth in the league in hitting and was the Summit League tournament MVP.
Lambertson, a 6-foot junior from Litchfield, Minn., was another All-Summit League first team pick. Her .386 hitting percentage last year was sixth best in league history, and she led the team in blocks with 105.
Joki, a 6-3 junior outside hitter from Grand Rapids, Minn., emerged as one of NDSU's top attackers and defenders last year finishing second in kills (317) and digs (337) and making the All-Summit League second team. She also scored from the service line with a league-high 67 aces.
Directing the attack is 5-10 senior setter Jennifer Lopez, who Thompson says will be key to the the offense in terms of leadership and her decision-making on the fly. Lopez averaged a team-best 9.16 assists per set last year but missed 14 matches due to an injury.
Defensively, the Bison have a question mark after the departure of leading digger Lauren McLaughlin, who converted from outside hitter to the libero role on an almost full-time basis last year.
Junior Andrea Henning split time as the libero last year and is the front-runner for that position early on. Henning, from Jackson, Wis., was second on the team with 3.29 digs per set last year.
Despite ranking first in the league in digs last year, Thompson says there is always room for improvement defensively. The Bison can also benefit from a disciplined blocking game at the net, which was key in NDSU's five-set win over IPFW in last year's Summit League title match when the Bison outblocked the Mastodons by a 16.5 to 4 margin.
In addition to the 18-match double round robin league schedule this year, the Bison find themselves facing another challenging non-conference schedule that includes five NCAA tournament teams from a year ago.
The opening weekend includes a match against Missouri, which advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament last year, and the second weekend sends the Bison to Tulsa, where the nationally ranked Golden Hurricane advanced to the NCAA second round in 2010.
The Bison open their home schedule Sept. 9-10 with two matches against Top 25 opponent Iowa State of the Big 12, and road matches against NCAA teams Butler and Northern Iowa follow later in the season.
"We're playing some very talented and high-ranked teams this year," Thompson said, "and I think that's a way to measure where we are. It's a way to challenge us but also to kind of keep us in the bigger picture of Division I and see where we are, what things we need to improve on."
Thompson said the focus for her team won't necessarily be on wins and losses, but rather on improvement and working toward their postseason goals.
"We're looking forward to those matches that are going to challenge us," she said, "but also looking at every match as how we're going to get better that day."
