Omaha Athletics

This Weekend
The Omaha volleyball team makes its second postseason appearance in three years this weekend, traveling to Denver, Colo., for the 2017 Summit League Volleyball Championship. The fifth-seeded Mavericks open quarterfinal play on Friday, Nov. 17, taking on fourth-seeded North Dakota State at 4 p.m. CT at Denver's Hamilton Gymnasium. With a win, Omaha will move to Saturday's semifinal vs. top-seeded Denver at 4 p.m. CT, and the winner of that match advances to Sunday's championship final at 3 p.m. CT with an NCAA Tournament bid on the line.
 
Links to live stats and video for all matches will be available on OMavs.com, and the championship match will be broadcast live on Altitude and ESPN3.
 
Quick Hits
•Omaha clinched its spot in the Summit League Tournament the weekend of Oct. 27-28 and locked down the No. 5 seed with a league record of 7-7.
•Omaha has been the Summit League's top team in three categories during league play: aces (82), total blocks (124) and blocks per set (2.38).
•The Mavericks have four sweeps for the season, all in Summit League play. Their most recent was last Friday with a 3-0 win over then-league leader Oral Roberts.
•Omaha has had eight double-figure block performances as a team this year.
•Omaha was picked to finish in a tie for fifth in the 2017 Summit League Preseason Poll. It finished seventh in the league standings in 2016.
•Head coach Rose Shires, the winningest coach in program history, is in her 28th year at Omaha.
•Sydney O'Shaughnessy has led the Mavericks in double-doubles each of the last three seasons with 19 in her freshman campaign, 24 as a sophomore, 13 as a junior and 13 more as a senior. Her 69 career double-doubles are the most of any active Maverick.
•The Mavericks welcomed 10,525 fans to the Omaha Challenge over three days at Baxter Arena, Sept. 14-16. The tournament finale saw a crowd of 5,351 fans for the match between No. 10 Nebraska and Omaha, marking the largest volleyball crowd in Baxter Arena history.
•O'Shaughnessy was the only Maverick to enter the season with All-Summit honors on her resume, as she was a 2015 all-league performer.
•Omaha returned eight letterwinners this season, including four starters from 2016.
•All-time, Omaha is 1,029-610-7.
 
Scouting the North Dakota State Bison
North Dakota State enters the tournament with a record of 18-8 (9-5 Summit League) and a three-match win streak. The Bison completed regular-season play with identical 3-1 wins at Western Illinois and Omaha last weekend. Mikaela Purnell is the league's leader for digs per set (6.10), while Brianna Rasmusson is third for assists per set (9.77) and Bella Lien is fifth for blocks per set (1.00).
 
Head coach Jennifer Lopez is in her first season with NDSU and has a career record of 18-8.
 
Omaha leads the all-time series with North Dakota State, 43-41.
 
Field Set for the 2017 Summit League Volleyball Championship
The six-team field for the 2017 Summit League Volleyball Championship was set last weekend at the conclusion of the regular season. The tournament champion will claim the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
              
               SUMMIT LEAGUE VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
               Friday, Nov. 17 – Quarterfinals
               4 p.m. CT – Match One: (4) North Dakota State vs. (5) Omaha
               7 p.m. CT – Match Two: (3) South Dakota vs. (6) Fort Wayne
 
               Saturday, Nov. 18 – Semifinals
               4 p.m. CT – Match Three: Winner Match One vs. (1) Denver
               7 p.m. CT – Match Four: Winner Match Two vs. (2) Oral Roberts
 
               Sunday, Nov. 19
               3 p.m. CT – Championship Match: Winner Match Three vs. Winner Match Four
 
Tourney Time
Omaha makes its second Summit League Championship appearance in three years this weekend. After assuming full postseason eligibility in 2015, the Mavericks defeated Oral Roberts (3-0) and IUPUI (3-2) to earn a spot in that year's tournament final, where they came a set shy of the NCAA Tournament in a loss to Denver (3-2).
 
Last Time Out: Omaha Falters Against NDSU, 3-1
Omaha dropped its final match of the regular season last Sunday, falling 3-1 (25-22, 13-25, 15-25, 27-29) to North Dakota State at Sapp Fieldhouse. Junior Abby Bergsten led the Mavericks with 11 kills for the afternoon. Freshman Anna Blaschko had nine more with two blocks, and classmate Bella Sade added eight kills with a team-high five blocks. Junior Mackenzie Horkey had eight more kills alongside 16 digs.
 
Senior Sydney O'Shaughnessy finished with 39 assists, six digs, a career-high-tying seven kills and two aces. Defensively, freshman Claire Mountjoy tallied a season-high 33 digs with seven assists and two aces. Sophomore Meagen Roth also had a double-figure effort with 13 scoops.
 
NDSU outhit Omaha .241 to .137 and outblocked the Mavericks 10-7.
 
Sydney's Smashing Milestones
Senior Sydney O'Shaughnessy has made her mark in the Maverick record books, as she moved up to No. 2 in school history for career assists last weekend. The Omaha native passed Emily Myers (2008-11) and now has 4,197. O'Shaughnessy also moved into the top 20 in Summit League history for career assists earlier this year, and she is now sixth on the list.
 
Entering the Summit League Tournament, O'Shaughnessy ranks 13th nationally among NCAA Division I active career leaders for assists and 22nd among players across all divisions.
 
Digging In
Senior Sydney O'Shaughnessy reached the top 10 in school history for career digs on Oct. 20, passing Kathy Knudsen (1982-85). She now has 1,322 digs to her credit to occupy the 10th spot, and her next target is Chelsea Miller (2002-05), who had 1,384.
 
Junior Mackenzie Horkey crossed the 1,000 digs plateau in last Friday's sweep of Oral Roberts. She now has 1,025 scoops in her career.
 
Mack's Back
Junior Mackenzie Horkey earned a medical redshirt after suffering a season-ending injury six matches into the 2016 season. The Jordan, Minn., native started the first six matches of 2016, averaging 3.35 kills and 3.55 digs per set.
 
In 2017, Horkey has picked up right where she left off, ranking second on the team with 2.36 kills per set alongside 10 double-figure kill efforts and eight double-doubles. She put up a season-high 17 kills with 13 digs vs. Indiana State (Sept. 2), then followed with 12 kills and a season-high 17 digs vs. Drake (Sept. 7).
 
Standout Starts in the Middle
Freshmen middle blockers Bella Sade and Anna Blaschko have both had a standout start to their collegiate careers. Sade leads the team with 1.05 blocks per set, the best average by a true freshman since Megan Schmale (0.86) in 2012. Sade is also second on the team with 2.33 kills per set while hitting .280. Her blocking average, total blocks (105) and block assists (92) rank second among league players. In conference play, Sade is first for blocking average (1.15), total blocks (60) and block assists (52).
 
Blaschko is just behind Sade with 1.01 blocks per set and has averaged 1.99 kills per set with a .288 hitting efficiency. Entering the week, she is the league leader in solo blocks (30), third for blocks per set (1.01) and fourth for total blocks (101). She is also Omaha's active career leader for solo blocks, and she holds both of the team's double-digit individual blocking performances this season with 10 at Fort Wayne (Oct. 1) and 10 at South Dakota (Nov. 3).
 
Bergsten Owning Strong Debut Season
Junior Abby Bergsten owns a team-leading 2.95 kills per set this season and has led the Mavericks in kills in nine matches. The Council Bluffs, Iowa, native has 12 double-figure kill performances -- including two with 20 or more -- and two double-doubles. She ranks third in Summit League play with 3.33 kills per set.
 
2017 Slate Takes Mavericks Around the Nation
Omaha's 2017 schedule includes 27 matches against 20 different opponents, and the team will play in eight states across the country. UNO will square off with opponents from seven other conferences, with three from the Missouri Valley, two each from the Big Ten, Big 12 and Mountain West and one apiece from the MAC, Big Sky and Ohio Valley. Five opponents -- Nebraska, Iowa State, K-State, Northern Iowa and Denver -- played in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
 
Entering 2017, the Mavericks had never faced three of their opponents: New Mexico, Kent State and Montana. UNO holds a combined all-time record of 196-181 over all teams on the slate this season.
 
Shires Guides Mavericks as Winningest Coach in School History
Head coach Rose Shires is the all-time winningest coach in 47 years of UNO volleyball history. In her 28th year at the helm of the Maverick program, Shires owns a career record of 493-382 (.563), with the most wins of the five coaches who have served at Omaha.
 
The 1996 AVCA National Coach of the Year and a two-time conference coach of the year, Shires has enjoyed tremendous success as UNO's guide. The 1996 campaign saw her lead UNO to a national championship as well as its first North Central Conference championship since 1987, followed by an Elite Eight appearance in 1997. In NCAA Tournament play, Shires' squads have combined for 11 appearances and a 10-10 postseason mark.
 
Shires is assisted by assistant coach Elena Pietro, who is in her third season, assistant coach Micah Rhodes, in his first year, and volunteer assistant coach Gina Mancuso, who is in her first year on the Maverick staff.
 
No Longer the Newcomers
In 2017-18, Omaha is in its third year with full Summit League and NCAA Division I postseason eligibility. The Mavericks competed as a reclassifying Division I school from 2011-14, and they officially joined the Summit League in 2012. During the reclassification period, UNO was ineligible for the league tournament and NCAA postseason play, but played a full regular-season conference schedule in its final three transitional years before assuming full eligibility in 2015-16.