The week ahead:
Bison Soccer to host Omaha, South Dakota in Homecoming Weekend Matches
     The North Dakota State women's soccer team will host Summit League foes Omaha and South Dakota Friday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 13, at Dacotah Field in a pair of homecoming weekend matches. The match with the Mavericks Friday will start at 5 p.m. while Sunday's tilt against the Coyotes will begin at noon.
 
The Series against Omaha
     Friday's match with the Mavs will be the eighth meeting all-time. NDSU leads the series 4-3-0. Last season the Bison traveled to Omaha and defeated the Mavs, 1-0.
 
The Series against South Dakota
    Sunday's match against the Coyotes will be the ninth meeting all-time. NDSU leads the series 7-1-0. Last season the Bison fell to the Coyotes for the first time in the series, 3-2, in Vermillion.
 
Against Summit League Opponents
     The Bison have an all-time record of 31-20-5 against Summit League opponents.
 
About the Omaha Mavericks
     The Mavericks enter the week at 3-5-2 overall and are 1-0-0 in The Summit League. UNO is 2-2-2 at home and 1-3-0 on the road through 10 matches.
     Offensively, the Mavericks are paced by Melanie McCormick with four goals and Monica Bosiljevac with three goals and three assists.
     The primary goalkeeper for UNO is Meaghan Clark. She has a record of 3-5-2 in goal with 54 saves in 940 minutes. Clark has allowed 19 goals for a goals-against-average (GAA) of 1.82.
     As a team, the Mavs average 1.40 goals-per-match while giving up 1.90 per-match. Omaha leads the league in yellow cards with 12 and is fifth in goals-scored with 14.
    
About the South Dakota Coyotes
     South Dakota enters the week at 5-4-3 overall and 0-1-0 in league play. USD is 2-2-1 at home, 2-2-1 on the road and 1-0-1 at neutral sites through 12 matches.
     The Coyotes leading scorer is Jamie Karch with six goals. Danielle Anderson also has four goals and three assists, respectively, for USD.
     The Coyote's main goalkeeper is Mackenzie Viktor. She has a record of 5-4-3 in goal with 55 saves in 1120:02 minutes. Viktor has given-up 18 goals for a GAA of 1.45.
     As a team, the Coyotes average 1.75 goals-per-match while holding their opponents to 1.50 per-match.   USD is second in the league in goals scored with 21 and assists with 20.
 
Catching Up with the Bison
    The Bison went 1-1 in their first week of Summit League action, defeating IUPUI 2-0 in Indianapolis Oct. 4, before falling to Western Illinois in Macomb Oct.6, 1-0.  NDSU is 5-7 overall.
     In the 2-0 win at IUPUI, Anisha Kinnarath scored both goals of the match to tally her second brace of the season. Her first goal came in the 34th minute when she corralled a rebounded shot off the goalpost and hammered it home from 15 yards out. Kinnarath completed the brace in the 61st minute with her second goal of the match after she headed a cross from Sheri Fitzsimmons into the back of the net. NDSU goalkeeper Sierra Bonham went the full 90 minutes between the pipes, making four key saves to preserve the 2-0 lead and pick-up her third shutout of the season.
     In the 1-0 loss to Western Illinois, Bonham had a career-high 15 saves but suffered the loss in goal after allowing a WIU goal in the 10th minute of the match. The Bison were outshot in the match 31-10 and only had three shots-on-goal compared to 16 for the home team. The 15 saves in the match was the third-highest in NDSU soccer history and the most since 1995.
 
A Look at the Numbers
     Through 12 matches, NDSU is paced offensively by Kinnarath and Lauren Miller. Kinnarath leads the team in goals-scored with six while Miller has four goals and a team-high four assists. Both Kinnarath and Miller have a team-high 12 points. Katie Tallas has two goals and an assist while Tristyn Walczak, Meghan Johnston and Mikayla Jacobson each have one goal. Olivia Norman, Steph Jacobson, Amy Yang and Jaclyn Scanlan each have an assist through 12 matches.
     In goal, Sierra Bonham has made 11 starts in 12 matches. She has 71 saves in 923:43 minutes between the pipes and has allowed 20 goals for a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.95. Bonham has a record of 4-6-0 with three shutouts. Fellow NDSU goalkeeper Katie McCormick has seen action in three matches, making one start. She has nine saves in 168:30 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 both goals (15) and assists (10) in The Summit League entering the week.  NDSU is sixth in shots, attempting 119. North Dakota State leads the league in Saves with an average of 6.83 per-match.
     Individually, Kinnarath is tied for the league lead in game-winning goals with three and is tied for second in the league in goals scored with six. Miller is tied for third in total goals with four. She is second in the league in total assists (4). Kinnarath and Miller are tied for fourth in total points with 12. Sierra Bonham leads the league in total saves with 71.
 
Bonham among NCAA Goalkeeping Leaders
     Sierra Bonham ranks 23rd in all of NCAA Division I for saves per game with an average of 6.45 per game. She is 24th in total saves with 71.

Kinnarath tabbed Summit League Offensive Player of the Week
     Anisha Kinnarath was named The Summit League Offensive Player of the Week for her performance Sept. 30 - Oct. 6.
     The junior helped the Bison to a split last week in league play. Kinnarath scored both of her goals in the 2-0 win at IUPUI Friday, Oct. 4. Her first goal came in the 34th minute when she corralled a rebounded shot off the goalpost and netted it from 15 yards out for the eventual game-winner. She completed the brace in the 61st minute with an insurance goal on a header to the back of the net off a Sheri Fitzsimmons cross. In the loss at Western Illinois Sunday, Oct. 6, Kinnarath paced NDSU with four shots.
     For the week, she had two goals on 11 shots with a .455 shot on goal percentage.
     It's Kinnarath's third career Offensive Player of the Week award and first this season.
 
Head Coach Mark Cook
     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 13-17-0. 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 Coaches
Don Klosterman - University of Nebraska-Omaha
     Don Klosterman enters his 15th season at the helm of the UNO women's soccer program in 2013. The only head coach the University of Nebraska Omaha has had, Klosterman has a 201-74-12 (.721) all-time record.
     Prior to becoming the head coach at UNO, Klosterman was the head boys' soccer coach at Millard South High School in Omaha for 10 years.
     Klosterman is a graduate of Christian Brothers High School in St. Louis and went on to earn his bachelor's degree from Benedictine (Kan.) College in 1974 and his master's in physical education from UNO in 1985.
    
Mandy Green - University of South Dakota
     Mandy Green is in her fourth season as South Dakota's head women's soccer coach. She was named to the position on March 30, 2010.
     Prior to becoming the head coach at USD, Green spent the 2009 season as an assistant coach on the Xavier University coaching staff, where she was involved in game and practice planning, recruiting and working on the individual development of each athlete.
     Green is a 1999 graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., with a bachelor's degree in psychology. She earned a master's degree in sports psychology from the University of Utah in 2006.