OMAHA, Neb. -- The Omaha volleyball team plays host to North Dakota for its third straight Summit League home matchup. The Mavericks take on the Fighting Hawks this Friday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m. inside Baxter Arena.
Serve Pink
Friday marks the annual "Serve Pink" match for the 2018 season. Players will be decked out with pink attire and fans are encourage to wear pink to show support for breast cancer awareness.
Follow the Mavericks
Both matches are free to watch and links to live stream, live stats, audio and radio can be found on OMavs.com. Harrison Popp and Morgan Wright will be on the call via MavRadio for Friday's contest.
Opening Serve
• Omaha sits at 4-0 in Summit League play for the first time since 2015.
• The Mavericks are also 5-0 at home this season and 4-0 inside Baxter Arena.
• The 5-0 record is the best start in the Division I era and the best since 2009 (12-0).
• Omaha already has nine wins this season, and a win over North Dakota would tie the total amount of victories from 2017 (10-18 record).
• With a .231 team hitting percentage, the Mavericks rank first among all league members.
• The team is also second in assists (762) and third in assists per set (12.70) in The Summit League.
• Omaha has also been aggressive on the attack this season and ranks second in the league with 13.43 kills per set and 806 total kills.
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Sydney Case leads the league with 11.36 assists per set while
Isabella Sade ranks third in the league with a .343 hitting percentage.
• This season, Case has won Summit League Offensive Player of the Week honors twice, which makes her the first Maverick since Kimberly Bailey (2015) to win a weekly award twice in one season.
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Claire Mountjoy sits third in the league with 3.90 digs per set.
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Anna Blaschko leads the team with 1.02 blocks per set which ranks fifth amongst league members.
The 500 Club
Head coach
Rose Shires earned her 500th career win at North Dakota State. Her 500 total wins make her No. 29 all-time among active winningest current Division I coaches. She is one of 29 active coaches to have at least 500 career wins in NCAA Division I and one of 79 coaches in the nation across all divisions.
Scouting the North Dakota Fighting Hawks
North Dakota sits at 4-1 this season in league play with a 12-8 overall record. As the new league member, the Fighting Hawks have wins over Western Illinois (3-2), North Dakota State (3-2), Oral Roberts (3-2) and South Dakota State (3-0). The lone loss is to Purdue Fort Wayne (3-0).
North Dakota has played six five-set matches this season and are 5-1 when in that scenario. The Fighting Hawks also have both Summit League Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week in Jordan Vail (Offensive) and Taliyah Flores (Defensive).
Flores joins Omaha's Case and South Dakota's Anne Rasmussen as the only players to win two weekly player of the week awards this season. She also leads the league with 351 total digs and ranks third with 4.62 digs per set. Omaha is 44-13 all-time against North Dakota, but fell 3-0 in the last meeting on Aug. 26, 2016 in a road match. The team is led by head coach Mark Pryor, who is in his fifth season with the program. North Dakota leads the team with 235 total block assists and 156 total blocks.
Looking Ahead
The Mavericks are off until Friday, Oct. 12, where they will travel to Vermillion, S.D. to face off against South Dakota at 7 p.m. Following the road trip, Omaha returns to Baxter Arena for a pair of in-league showdowns against Oral Roberts on Oct. 14 and Denver on Oct. 16.
