GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Fresh off a big home win over Utah Valley on Halloween to take over sole possession of first place in the Great West standings, the Fighting Sioux will take to the air for their final two conference road matches of the regular season. UND will travel to Illinois first to take on Chicago State this Thursday evening before flying further east to face New Jersey Institute of Technology on Saturday.

The trips to the respective schools will be the first for the Sioux volleyball program. Earlier this season, UND swept both the Cougars and Highlanders at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

SIZING UP CHICAGO STATE: The Cougars are winless on the season after 21 matches, including nine setbacks in Great West Conference play. Head coach Shakelia Castile-Jones is in her first full season guiding the Cougars after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater.

Mazvita Maziveyi has been the most consistent Cougar as she ranks second in kills (86) and total blocks (23), while leading the team with 25 service aces. Kimberly Naut is CSU’s top attacker with 97 kills. The Cougars picked up their first set victory of the season on Sept. 26 at Texas-Pan American in Great West play.

SIZING UP NJIT: Under the direction of interim head coach J.R. Martins, the Highlanders are off to a 5-3 start in league play and have a 15-8 ledger overall. NJIT is 6-1 at home after dropping their first match of the season at the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center on Halloween to Texas-Pan American. The team leads the country in digs per set with an average of 20.24. Senior Sabrina Baby is leading that effort as her average of 6.29 digs per set is also tops among DI players.

The Highlanders opened the season with eight straight wins, but have since posted a 7-8 record in their last 15 matches. Sophomore Renata Pandolfo, who led the team in kills as a freshman with 343 a season ago, is the top attacker for NJIT with 279 kills. Pandolfo also has 300 digs. Junior Baaba Hughes ranks second with 202 kills. Twelve of their 15 victories this season have come via the sweep.

SIOUX SWEEP WEEKLY GREAT WEST HONORS: Junior Erin Joki and senior Lindsay Vortherms were each recognized on Tuesday for their efforts in a big victory for the Fighting Sioux this past Saturday. The duo helped UND take over sole possession of first place in the Great West standings by defeating Utah Valley in a five-set thriller on Halloween.League officials named Joki the Offensive Player of the Week, while Vortherms collected her third Defensive Player of the Week honor this season. The victory broke a tie between the two clubs, who both entered the match with 7-1 league records.

Joki registered a career-high 14 kills, including the match-clinching kill in the fifth set, and equaled her season-high with five digs in what was the seventh straight victory for UND. The weekly honor is her first of the season. She is the fourth different Sioux to earn the league’s weekly offensive accolade. Vortherms had 27 of UND’s season-high 97 digs in the match as the defense limited the Wolverines to a .183 attack percentage. The weekly honor is the third overall and second in the last three weeks for Vortherms, who earlier this season became UND’s all-time leader in career digs.

MAKING A CASE: Senior Britta Hanson is putting together another solid campaign in her final season with the Fighting Sioux and the Thompson, N.D. native is making a case for Great West Player of the Year honors. She currently leads the Great West Conference in blocks/set (1.48), total blocks (124) and block assists (111). Hanson also holds the top attack percentage in the league, finishing off attacks at a .300 clip (202k-60e-473a). Her 111 block assists are the second most in a single season at UND and earlier this season she became just the 12th player in school history to join the 1,000-kill club. Hanson has 202 kills on the season and has surpassed that plateau in all four of her years with the Sioux.

FANS SHATTER BETTY ATTENDANCE MARK, RAISE FUNDS FOR DIG PINK: It stood for just over a year, but the record for UND volleyball attendance at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center was eclipsed on Sept. 17 and surpassed yet again on Oct. 23. The 2009 Fighting Sioux home opener had 508 spectators as the record crowd was treated to a sweep of HBU. That new figure did not last long as 891 fans came out for UND’s annual ‘Dig Pink’ contest and the Sioux did not disappoint, sweeping New Jersey Institute of Technology to grab a share of first place in the Great West Conference. The Sioux fans also donated $898 for the Side Out Foundation from match proceeds. The old mark entering the season was 500 set on Sept. 10, 2008, when the Sioux also swept its opposition - Valley City State.

DOMINATING DEFENSE: The Fighting Sioux limited Chicago State to a combined 30 points in their sweep of the Cougars on Oct. 25. The 30 points established a new record for fewest points allowed in a 3-set, rally-scoring match. The previous mark was set when the Sioux surrendered only 45 points against Evergreen State on Aug. 31, 2002.

VORTHERMS SURPASSES SUTTER IN SWEEP OF SOUTH DAKOTA: Senior Lindsay Vortherms etched her name a top the UND career digs list on Oct. 15 during a Sioux sweep of South Dakota. With 20 digs against the Coyotes, Vortherms surpassed Mindy Sutter (1,594, 1985-88) for the top spot on the list. She now has 1,664 during her tenure with the Sioux.

STREAKY SIOUX: The Sioux are off to a 17-6 start under first-year head coach Ashley Hardee and the team has reached its win total with some streaky play. UND opened the campaign sweeping through the competition at the Best Western Sycamore Classic, reeling off four-straight wins to earn the tournament title. After dropping five of their next six matches, the Sioux began Great West Conference play by sweeping Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American at home. That sparked a five-match winning streak that came to an end with the team’s loss at Utah Valley (Oct. 1). The setback to the Wolverines was UND’s only blemish in its last 13 matches thanks to their current season long seven-match win streak, which began with a sweep of UTPA on Oct. 8. Their latest victim in that stretch was that same Wolverine-team when UVU fell in five sets to the Sioux on Halloween.

BROOM, BROOM, BROOM: The Fighting Sioux bring a seven-match win streak into this weekend’s road trip. The Sioux swept the first six of those victims before UVU took them to five sets on Saturday. The six straight blankings did set a new school record for consecutive sweep. The old mark was held by the 2008 team with five straight.  

SWEEPING SUCCESS: The Fighting Sioux hold a 8-1 mark in Great West Conference play so far this season and seven of those victories have come via the sweep. UND has swept every team in the Great West Conference except for Utah Valley - the Wolverines and Sioux played a five-set thriller won by UND on Oct. 31 and UVU defeated the Sioux 3-1 on Oct. 1. The team set a school record a season ago by registering 16 sweeps in 24 victories.

ACES ABOUND: The Fighting Sioux set a new season-high for aces in their sweep of Chicago State on Oct. 25 with 12 and added nine more in their five-set victory over Utah Valley on Oct. 31. Sophomore Devin Trefz set a new career-high with seven of those 12 vs. Chicago State, while senior Megan Langseth equaled her career-high with four. Sophomore Taylor Bohannon had the 12th ace of the match. Trefz led the team in aces a season ago with 35 and currently ranks second this season with 22. Sophomore Annika Smed holds the top spot with 24 aces. She has flip-flopped positions with Trefz after ranking second in 2008 with 31. Senior Lindsay Vortherms had a career-high four aces in the victory over Utah Valley to bring her season total to 20, which is a new career-high.

SEVENTH TO 2,000: Senior setter Megan Langseth earned a spot on the all-tournament team at the Best Western Sycamore Classic after leading the Sioux with 141 assists in the four-match event. With her total, she became just the seventh player in school history to surpass the 2,000-plateau in career assists. Through 23 matches this season, Langseth has 859 assists and has collected at least 30 helpers in 19 of those contests. She had a season-high 55 in the four-set victory over Montana State (Sept. 5). Langseth, who collected 1,134 assists during the 2008 campaign — a total that was the eighth highest in single-season history at UND — now has 2,788 for her career­. She needs just four more to move into fifth place on the career charts and with a strong finish to her senior season, she could become just the fourth Fighting Sioux player in school history to surpass the 3,000-assist mark.

ON THE RISE: Hanson has moved into third place on the UND career charts in block assists (353) and fourth in total blocks (420) with her stellar play in the middle this season. She leads the team with 13 solo blocks and a career-high 111 block assists. Those 111 block assists are the second most in a single season by a Sioux player. Hanson also holds the ninth and 10th spots on that single-season list after registering 92 in 2008 and 91 in 2006, respectively. The senior also moved into the 1,000-kill club earlier this season becoming just the 12th player in UND history to achieve that feat. With 202 on the season, she cracked the top 10 list and sits in ninth place with 1,109.

DOUBLE THREAT: It should come as little surprise that sophomore Annika Smed leads the team with six double-doubles through 23 matches. One of the more versatile players on the team, Smed is the only Sioux player to surpass the 200-platuae this season in kills (238) and digs (265). Those figures rank second on the team, respectively. She was the only Sioux player from a season ago to finish with at least 200 kills (258) and 300 digs (347) and is on pace to achieve that same feat in 2009. Smed currently ranks sixth in the Great West with a 3.15 kill/set average.

TREFZ ON TOP: Sophomore Devin Trefz is off to a blistering start in the kills department through 23 matches. She leads the team with 299 successful attacks and her average of 3.56 kills/set is nearly a kill higher than her average of 2.77/set (319 total) from her freshman season.  It also ranks her second in that category among Great West players. Trefz has reached double figures in kills in 20 of 23 matches for the Sioux and has led the club in that category in 19 matches this season. With 20 kills in the victory over Utah Valley on Oct. 31, it marked the second time she had 20-plus kills in a match this season. Her season high of 21 came against Montana State (Sept. 5).

JOKI JIVE: Junior Erin Joki established a new career-high in kills with 14 in a five-set victory over Utah Valley on Oct. 31. The Grand Rapids, Minn., native tallied a .400 attack percentage as well to pace the Sioux in that category. Joki has also twice set a career-high in attack percentage this season, both times registering eight kills on 12 and 13 swings, respectively. Against SIU-E (Aug. 28), she hit .667 and in the sweep of Bemidji State (Oct. 20), Joki hit .615. She ranks fourth on the team with 130 kills and has twice collected 10 kills in a match (Aug. 28 vs. UMKC and Sept. 23 at Gonzaga).

EFFICIENT ATTACKER: Senior Amanda Polzin is third on the Sioux in attack percentage (.198, 128k-62e-333a) through the first 23 matches of the campaign. At the UniWyo Cowgirl Invite, she had 22 kills and finished with a team-best .419 attack percentage (22k-4e-43a). A career .240 attacker coming into the season, she opened Great West play by hitting .385 in the sweep of HBU and .533 with 10 kills against UTPA.

BETTY BE NICE: With their sweep of Houston Baptist on Sept. 17, the Fighting Sioux have now won all six home-openers at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center and have won eight home-openers overall.  Through seven home matches this season, the Sioux have already matched last year’s win total at home (7-1 in 2008). When the Sioux play their final home game of the season on Nov. 14 vs. rival South Dakota, the 2009 team could become the first in school history to go undefeated in a season on its home court.