The number one ranked Wayne State College volleyball returns home after capturing two wins on the road over the weekend. The Wildcats take on the Minot State Beavers on Friday, Oct. 27, the University of Mary Marauders on Saturday, Oct. 28, and the 7th ranked Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs on Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 31.
“I mean, it’s really good to be home,” Coach Scott Kneifl said. “Playing in front of our home fans, it’s a great thing.”
The Wildcat’s first matchup of the homestand comes against Minot State who is at the bottom of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings with a record of 1-11 in conference. The last time the Wildcats matched up against Minot, last season, they swept them in three sets.
On Saturday, Wayne State takes on UMary who are 13th of 15 teams in the NSIC with a record of 2-12. Although they have a lackluster record, UMary is coming off back-to-back wins over Minot and Augustana.
“We always say that our most important game is our next one,” Kneifl said. “The University of Mary just swept Augustana this last weekend so you can’t take anything for granted. You have to go out and play one point at a time, when you look at their records, they’re not stellar, but as you know our league is pretty darn good.”
For the final matchup of the homestand, the Wildcats take on Southwest Minnesota State on Tuesday. This Halloween match marks the Wildcats annual blackout game where the players and fans don all black apparel to “blackout” Rice Auditorium.
“It’s a Tuesday night, Halloween night, and I’m expecting a great crowd and I know our players are excited to play in front of a huge crowd,” Kneifl said. “It should be a fun atmosphere. The blackout night is always a huge night for us. So we definitely think the people that put those on, Billy Meier and his class, do a fabulous job of getting people in the stands… so we’re excited. They’re a big rival of ours and it should be a fun night.”
Wayne State’s last matchup against SMSU was a five-set thriller in Marshall, Minnesota on Sept. 23. The Wildcats won that matchup in a hostile away environment and now look to repeat that performance in a packed Rice Auditorium on Tuesday. One key for the Wildcats to be able to defeat SMSU will be to continue to have a high hitting percentage in comparison to their opponent, which will be a challenge against an SMSU team allowing the lowest hitting percentage to opponents in the NSIC.
“We look at our hitting percentage a lot, but more so we look at the difference between what we’re hitting and our opponents hitting,” Kneifl said. “If we can stay 100 to 150 points higher than our opponent, we feel like we have a really good chance to win and that’s what it’s going to be about.”