By Ethan Wolbach
The Omaha Mavericks turn their attention to The Summit League Championship presented by U.S. Air Force Special Warfare. The No. 4 seeded Mavericks match up against No. 5 North Dakota State (NDSU) Bison Friday, November 22nd at Hamilton Gymnasium in Denver, Colo at 4 p.m. CST.
Omaha finished the regular season with a 10-6 record in Summit League play compared to NDSU’s 8-8. This will be the third consecutive matchup in the quarterfinals between the Mavericks and Bison, as NDSU has bounced Omaha in the opening round in back to back seasons.
This is the first time in Omaha volleyball program history that the Mavericks are the 4th seed in the tournament, as the Mavericks have appeared in The Summit League Championship for 3-consecutive seasons.
NDSU has reached the tournament for 7-consecutive seasons with an 11-8 all-time record in tournament play. Lead by head coach Jennifer Lopez, the Bison are no strangers to postseason success. The Bison won the Summit League in 2008, 2010 and 2011. In 2011, Lopez received setter and player of the year awards, as well as tournament MVP. Lopez was officially named head coach of the program in 2017.
In two matches this season, Omaha defeated NDSU 3-1 at Baxter Arena and then swept the Bison 3-0 in Fargo, N.D. during Omaha’s 4-game streak of sweeping their opponents. In the last matchup, Omaha recorded 48 kills compared to NDSU’s 20 in a dominant match for the Mavericks.
Omaha leads the series against the Bison with a 45-43 record. However, NDSU is looking for a repeat success from last season where they defeated Omaha 3-1 in the quarterfinals before eventually falling to the South Dakota Coyotes. The Coyotes won the 2018 Summit League Championship last season against the Denver Pioneers.
With a win, the Mavericks would matchup against No. 1 seeded South Dakota Coyotes. The Coyotes finished the regular season undefeated in Summit League play and have not recorded a loss since Sept. 3 against Iowa State. South Dakota rides a 24-game win streak into the tournament as they will look for back-to-back tournament titles.
You can listen to the duration of Omaha’s tournament run live on MavRadio.fm.
