KC / Denver @ South Dakota | Thu 7PM/ Sat 12PM CT | (SLN)

[kiyoat]

                       

Kansas City	@	USD
Denver	@	USD

Vermillion, SD

Thursday, Sept 28rd 7pm CT

Watch (SLN):link

Saturday, Sept 30 12pm CT

Watch (SLN):link

Stats: link

               

	&		vs
#166* Kansas City Roos		#207* Denver Pios		#152* USD Coyotes
11-3 (2-0)		3-7 (2-0)		6-6 (0-1)
*FigstatsRPI

Kansas City		Denver		South Dakota
Schedule		Schedule		Schedule
Roster		Roster		Roster

_          Series History

All-time: USD leads KC 10-5, tie with Denver 13-13

in 2022: USD beat KC twice, Denver twice

streaks: 5 wins over KC, 4 over Denver

     

Odds/ Predictions

Massey: USD beats KC 3-0 (94%)

Massey: USD beats Denver 3-1 (90%)

[kiyoat]

preview: (ARTICLE LINK)

The Coyotes


Madison Harms' 1.20 blocks per set and 55 total blocks sit at second in the league behind Kansas City's Carly Gillen (1.24 b/s, 72 TB). Harms recorded her 1000th career kill in South Dakota's match against Omaha on Sept. 23, becoming the 11th Coyote in program history to join the 1,000-kill club. The middle blocker had seven kills and three blocks on the match.


Avery Van Hook has stepped into the setter role for the Coyotes and has recorded six double-doubles in 12 games, including a career-high 51 assists in USD's five-set win over Green Bay on Sept. 14.


Defensive specialist Kamryn Farris has rotated into the libero position for the Coyotes. The sophomore put up double-digit digs in both matches as libero and tallied three service aces.


Sixth-year middle blocker Brynn Paumen was named the Summit League Defensive Peak Performer of the Week for the first time in her Coyote career on Sept. 19. Paumen averaged 1.08 blocks per set through South Dakota's three wins in Green Bay and is averaging 0.93 blocks per set on the season.


The Roos


Outside hitter Odyssey Warren recorded her 1,000th career kill in a career-best 26 kill performance in the win over SDSU. Warren's 3.42 kills per set average leads the Roos and sits at third in the league.


Senior Oral Roberts transfer Kaia Dunford is averaging 3.10 kills per set behind Warren and has put up double-digit kill numbers is every match but one this season.


Defensive specialist Leah Green is the reigning Summit League Defensive Peak Performer of the Week after totaling 54 digs through Kansas City's first two league wins. The junior's 289 total digs on the season led the league and rank eighth nationally, while her 4.98 digs per set average also leads the league and sits at 21st nationally.


Sophomore setter Sydney Henry had 582 assists on the season so far, a total that ranks fifth in the NCAA and leads the Summit. Henry has put up 30+ assists in every match but one and tallied a career-high 54 assists in Kansas City's win over SDSU on Sept. 23.


The Pioneers


Cadi Boyer averages 2.06 kills per set and her 1.19 blocks per set average sits at third in the league behind Harms.


Baylor transfer Cassie Davis averages a team-leading 3.22 kills per set for the Pioneers. The outside hitter had nine kills on 16 attempts with no errors against North Dakota to hit a season-best .563.

[kiyoat]

I thought I'd do two in one this week... less effort on my part = good for Kiyoat. Plus, both opponents are the only 2-0 teams in the conference. Should make for entertaining games, although I'd be just fine with a couple of boring beat-downs.

Yotes need to get it together, or it's going to be a long season.

[Steve vb]

Sept 25, 2023 16:20:13 GMT -5 kiyoat said:

I thought I'd do two in one this week... less effort on my part = good for Kiyoat. Plus, both opponents are the only 2-0 teams in the conference. Should make for entertaining games, although I'd be just fine with a couple of boring beat-downs.

Yotes need to get it together, or it's going to be a long season.

Last week, I saw both Kansas City and South Dakota in person. I think that SD gets the win at home, but who knows this year. Denver lost to below average teams in the non-conference and looked like they were in for a bad year. Then in the first weekend of conference play, they sweep the team that I thought had a good chance to win the Summit League title this year, and are 2 - 0. After these two matches, we'll have a little better idea of who the top teams are and whether South Dakota can have more consistent passing against fairly good serving teams. It seems to me that both South Dakota and Omaha are in rebuilding years which opens the door for several teams to win the title.

[kiyoat]

Another good matchup this weekend is NDSU at Omaha on Saturday night . I’m not keen on running two threads though.

[Deleted]

Good idea

[Steve vb]

Sept 26, 2023 7:20:09 GMT -5 kiyoat said:

Another good matchup this weekend is NDSU at Omaha on Saturday night . I’m not keen on running two threads though.

The NDSU vs. Omaha match this weekend is in Fargo, ND.  

[trojansc]

Can i trust Avery Van Hook and/or Harms this week. They weren’t great against Omaha fantasy wise.

[kiyoat]

Sept 26, 2023 11:09:51 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Can i trust Avery Van Hook and/or Harms this week. They weren’t great against Omaha fantasy wise.

Good question.  I'm not sure.  One good thing is that the Yotes played a tough non-con, so individual stats are probably trustworthy.  I'm not sure what exactly scores with middles, but I think just about everything does with setters, right?  kills/set, assists/set, blocks/set, aces/set, digs/set?  For Middles you only count kills and blocks, right?

Van Hook's season averages vs Omaha match:

stat	season	Omaha
kills	0.85	1.25
assists	8.3	6.5
aces	0.26	0.00
digs	2.46	1.75
blocks	0.52	0.00

AVH was up to this point, a top-3 setter in the conference, comparing all stats.  NDSU's 5th year setter, Kelley Johnson is probably the best all-around, also KC's Soph Sydney Henry.  Of those three, it probably depends on which team is more dominant.  I like AVH's aggressiveness with dumps, serving and especially blocking.  She does occasionally suffer from some freshman mistakes though.

I think Omaha was an exceptional blocking team, which probably hurt her assist numbers.  Kills were actually better, even with a 0.00 hitting%.  I wouldn't put too much stock in the serving woes, I think that was an anomaly.  Hard to say how the team will do win-loss wise, but I don't see any other setter getting court time.

Here's Harms:

stat	season	Omaha
kills	2.74	1.75
blocks	1.2	0.75

really uncharacteristic day for her.  Pauman sometimes leads in blocks, but Harms always get's her share, especially since block assists are not 0.5 blocks.  She is top-2 blocks, top-10 kills, top-3 hitting% in conference, so as long as she gets opportunities, she usually dominates.  I'll post some team stats after this...

[kiyoat]

Here's some overall and "conference only" stats for KC and Denver opponents:

stat	KC All	KC Conf	Den All	Den Conf
Opponent Kills	12.24 #4	12.60 #4	13.38 #7	12.00 #3
Opponent Assist	11.53 #4	11.80 #4	12.28 #7	11.00 #3
Opponent Aces	1.4 #3	1.7 #5	1.75 #7	1.83 #8
Opponent Digs	16.84 #8	16.50 #7	12.34 #1	9.67 #1
Opponent Blocks	1.28 #1	1.40 #1	2.66 #9	1.83 #5

So Denver played a similar non-con schedule to South Dakota.  Fairly tough.  KC played the weakest non-con schedule in conference.  Personally, I'd trust the overall stats for Denver, and the conference stats for KC.  The numbers actually look consistent for KC, though.  Improved for Denver.

IDK - it's a risk to play either, I guess.

[Gladys Kravitz]

I like USD winning both

[kiyoat]

Weekly interview with Coach Williamson:

[kiyoat]

preview up (2nd post) - mainly just players of note for each team.

[trojansc]

Sept 28, 2023 17:00:38 GMT -5 kiyoat said:

preview up (2nd post) - mainly just players of note for each team.

I doubled down and played both.

Let’s go Avery and Madison!!

[kiyoat]

Sept 28, 2023 17:11:43 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Sept 28, 2023 17:00:38 GMT -5 kiyoat said:

preview up (2nd post) - mainly just players of note for each team.

I doubled down and played both.

Let’s go Avery and Madison!!

Hope springs eternal, welcome to the winning side!  I'm sure you will blame me if they suck, so at least this board is anonymous