SIOUX FALLS – Reaching the midway point of the league season, University of Sioux Falls Volleyball hosts a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opponents this weekend. The Cougars (10-4, 5-4 NSIC) welcome University of Mary (5-13, 1-8 NSIC) on Friday, Oct. 13 for a 6 p.m. match as part of Faculty Appreciation Night. Rounding out the Cougars' brief weekend home stand, USF hosts Minot State (4-14, 0-9 NSIC) on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 2 p.m.
 
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For all USF Volleyball home matches and all Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference contests, watch the Cougars live on Stretch Internet at USFCougars.com/watch. Live stats will be available for all matches. Links to home match live stats are available at USFCougars.com/livestats while links to all road match live stats are available on the USF Volleyball schedule at USFCougars.com.
 
Playoff picture
After Friday's match against U-Mary, the Cougars will have played half of their 20-match NSIC schedule. Heading into the weekend, USF is tied with Augustana for eighth in the conference standings at 5-4. With four teams tied atop the table with an 8-1 record (Concordia-St. Paul, Minnesota Duluth, Northern State, Southwest Minnesota State), the Cougars look to be one of five teams battling for the final four spots in the eight-team NSIC tournament. Winona State holds the biggest advantage with a 7-2 mark while Wayne State and Upper Iowa are one game up on Sioux Falls with 6-3 records in league play. Of the 11 opponents remaining on USF's regular season schedule, five are currently ahead of them in the NSIC standings.
 
Series Histories
                University of Mary – USF leads 6-1
After suffering their first loss to University of Mary in 2015, the Cougars swept last season to improve their overall record to against the Marauders. Makenna Rockeman connected on 18 kills in the first meeting last year, a 3-1 road victory for USF. At home, Lexi Scott put down 14 kills without committing an error to lead the Cougars in a sweep of UM. Sioux Falls is a perfect 4-0 at home against U-Mary since USF joined the NSIC in 2012. Three of the four USF home wins have been sweeps while the first meeting in 2012 was a 3-1 victory for the Cougars.
 
                Minot State – USF leads series 5-2
In seven matches against Minot State, the Cougars have rolled to five victories and been clipped twice in five sets. Through the first three years of the series, USF and Minot State were tied 2-2 with the Cougars earning two 3-1 victories and the Beavers snagging two five-set wins. Since then, USF has dominated the series, sweeping Minot State three straight times, including twice last season. In the first match last year, the Cougars cruised with Makenna Rockeman leading the offense with 15 kills while the USF defense, headed by then seniors Jordan Calef and Abby Folk, held Minot State to a .059 attack percentage. Despite the final result being a sweep, USF was met with much more resistance from Minot State in the second leg last season. The first two sets were only separated by two points, but middle blockers Calef and Lexi Scott combined for 24 kills to carry the Cougars past MSU. The Cougars look to improve their home record against Minot State, which currently stands at 3-1 with the 2014 loss the only blemish in the series.
 
Cougars stay in receiving votes of Top 25 poll
For the fourth straight week, USF appeared in the receiving votes section of the AVCA Top 25 Coaches' Poll. A win over then No. 9 Augustana helped USF garner national attention and five weeks later the Cougars earned eight points in the Week 5 poll. The Cougars received the 10th-most points among teams outside of the top 25, placing them 35th in the NCAA Division II volleyball landscape.
 
Milestone watch
A pair of USF volleyball players are closing in on eclipsing millennium milestones as members of the Cougar Volleyball program while numerous Cougars are etching their names in the record books. In her junior year, Makenna Rockeman is quickly approaching her 1,000th career kill. At 910 kills currently and an average of 3.60 kills per set this season, Rockeman is on pace to break the record this season. She would become the second Cougar to reach that mark since USF joined the NCAA Division II ranks after current assistant coach Emily Tolkamp (Johnson) became the first to do so in 2014. Senior libero Janelle Lam has seamlessly slid into her starting role and is closing in on the 1,000 career digs mark. She has 822 digs in her career and is just eight from setting a season-best mark with 244 this season. Lam is averaging 4.52 digs per set, and with a conservative estimation of 33 sets remaining in the season (minimum three sets per match), she will hit 971 this season at that rate. With just more than 100 kills from the top four, juniors Bria Barfnecht and Lexi Scott are climbing up the USF Division II kills record list. Barfnecht has 608 terminations in her career, placing her sixth, while Scott has 599 in her career to check in at seventh. Former standout outside hitter Kate Hart is fifth with 648 and right-side great Michelle Ritland is fourth on the list with 709 in her career.
 
Cougars building home court advantage, own 17-5 record in Stewart Center last two seasons
Since transitioning to NCAA Division II in 2011 and gaining full membership in 2012, the Cougars have steadily improved their home record and made the Stewart Center a true home court advantage. As they continue to progress in the top volleyball conference in Division II, USF has put together a 45-38 record at home since 2011, all under head coach Joel McCartney. As McCartney has built a program that is garnering votes in the AVCA Top 25 Coaches' poll, the Cougars have put together a 17-5 record at the Stewart Center in the past two seasons, including a perfect 9-0 record in nonconference matches. Last season, USF's three home losses came to three teams all ranked in the national top 10. With their five-set victory over crosstown rival Augustana in the conference-opening week and last year's win over then-No. 11 Northern State, the Cougars have two top-25 wins on their home court.
 
Cougars picked seventh in NSIC preseason poll
Tying for their highest preseason projections in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, USF Volleyball was picked to finish seventh in the NSIC preseason coaches' poll, which was released just before fall camp started. The Cougars collected 146 points in the poll, their highest total since joining the league in 2012.  The seventh-place billing ties their place in the 2014 preseason poll.
 
Reigning national champion Concordia-St. Paul was picked as the league favorite, collecting 10 first-place votes and 218 points. Southwest Minnesota State earned three first-place votes, placing them second overall, Minnesota Duluth received two first-place nods for third place and Augustana picked up the final first-place vote to put them in fourth.
 
Leader of the Pride: McCartney captures 100th victory at USF in seventh season
USF Volleyball head coach Joel McCartney enters his seventh season at the helm of the program. Building a competitor in the NSIC, the top Division II volleyball conference, McCartney has built a 107-99 record in his time at USF. In 20 years of coaching collegiate volleyball, he owns a 453-258 record, and a very successful six-year stint at NCAA Division I Winthrop earned him a spot in the Winthrop Hall of Fame. McCartney has taken the Cougars to the NSIC Tournament – top eight teams in the standings qualify – in three of five years as members of the conference. In 2016, he led the Cougars to an upset of No. 1 Minnesota Duluth on the road and he defeated top-25 ranked Northern State twice. He has coached players to five All-NSIC honors and three of NSIC Player of the Week awards. McCartney is assisted by his wife and associate head coach Andrea McCartney, and graduate assistant Jordan Calef.