WINONA, Minn. – A record-setting season for the Winona State University volleyball team has Warrior fans making travel plans, as head coach
Joe Getzin and his WSU team prepare for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) post season tournament. The NSIC Tournament field of eight teams will include Winona State as the #2 seed with the single elimination play event starting on Thursday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
About his team, Getzin noted,"I am really proud of this team in so many ways. How they have matured, how hard they work on a daily basis...how the whole team, all 18, has bought into our team goals."
Winona State (26-3, 17-3 NSIC) is currently ranked #8 in the nation in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) poll and received one first place nod in that process. The Warriors are led by
Megan Flom, who recently was named the NSIC Player-of-the-Year, one of four WSU student-athletes named to the NSIC Volleyball All-Conference teams. The postseason POY award is an appropriate bookend to a season in which Flom was also named the NSIC Preseason Player of the Year and the Kenyon, Minn. product has more than delivered on the potential coaches around the NSIC saw in her back in August.
In addition to earning both 2021 NSIC Player of the Year awards in volleyball, Flom has collected CoSIDA Academic All-American honors and AVCA All-American honors over the past eighteen months and recently moved passed the 1,000 kill mark for her career.
Far from a one-player show however, the 2021 Winona State squad has benefited from balanced play in all phases of the game. Setter
Bre Maloney has conducted an orchestra of an offense for the Warriors, dishing out 1,082 assists so far this year and setting up her teammates for success. Maloney owns a 11.39 assist/set average, the second highest in the NSIC and 8th best in the country.
When opposing teams focus on Flom, other attacking players such as
Sidney Paulson,
Madison Larson and
Madison Rizner rise to the occasion, as evidenced by standout performances in matches over the course of the season when rival coaches set their sights on stopping, or at least slowing down, Flom. The four frontline powers each have surpassed the 200 kill mark this season. Compared to the rest of the NSIC Tournament field, Winona State is one of just two teams in the league that feature four different players with over 200 kills this season: Flom (388), Paulson (265), Larson (243) and Rizner (202).
The diversity in the attack for Winona State has led to three separate impressive winning streaks; eight wins in a row to start the season, another eight-match stretch in the middle of the year and the current nine-match streak Winona State enjoys heading into the NSIC.
Of course, while offense is fun, defense wins championships. And the Warrior defense starts with
Becca Pagel.
Pagel is hard to miss. Follow the initial ball over the net as it comes to the Warrior side and chances are, Pagel is there. The graduate student from Sumner, Iowa leads the NSIC in digs (535), and her 5.24 digs/set mark is a top-40 figure in NCAA Division II volleyball. In the ultra-competitive NSIC, arguably the nation's top NCAA Division II volleyball league, Pagel stands out for her tenacity, effort and athleticism.
Pagel's persistence in defensive pursuit rubs off on her teammates. The aforementioned Rizner also represents WSU in the top 20 NSIC for total blocks category, as does Flom. Two Warrior teammates, Maloney and
Casey Volkmann, have more than 250 digs each this year.
Even more impressive is the absence of quit in any Warrior player when it comes to defense. Winona State simply tracks down every ball and makes their opponents try to beat them again and again on the same point. Very few Warrior opponents are successful in that endeavor; the three team losses on the season is the least amount of losses of any program in the NSIC. It also stands as a program record to date since Winona State moved from NAIA to NCAA play in the mid-1990's. Prior to 2021, the least-loss team record at the end of the regular season was the 2016 WSU team which finished 27-6 and qualified for the NCAA Division II postseason.
In Sioux Falls, the best teams in the best league will assemble to compete for the NSIC Tournament Championship, a trophy that comes with an attractive appendage of an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament. College tournaments in all sports have historically led to upsets, surprising results, and occasionally, an affirmation of dominance by the teams who put together a strong regular season and earned the right to be there.
For the Warriors, their 2021 resume speaks for itself.
Not just the 26-3 overall mark and impressive 17-3 NSIC ledger but wins over a cadre of nationally-ranked programs. Early season sweeps of the Ferris State Invitational and the University of Indianapolis Greyhound Invitational saw Winona State dispatch five teams that were nationally ranked at the time of competition. For any fans that needed further proof, a win over nine-time national champion Concordia – St. Paul on the Golden Bears' home court raised many an eyebrow across the region. Beating CSP again three weeks later - this time in McCown Gymnasium - put all eyes on the Warriors as they went about their business in the NSIC.
On November 18, Winona State will start their postseason run taking on #7 Upper Iowa University (20-9, 13-7 NSIC) at noon in the NSIC Tournament. The Warriors beat UIU 3-1 in Fayette on Thursday, Oct. 28. As the second seed, WSU will look to continue to their current tremendous form and will keep taking care of business en route to an opportunity for NCAA Division II postseason play.
As NSIC teams compete in Sioux Falls, fans, families and followers of NCAA Division II volleyball will likely keep tabs on not only the NSIC results, but those of the Mid-America Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC), the two other leagues in the region. Three of the eight NCAA Division II bids will be awarded to the tournament champions of each of the three conferences. The remaining five will be awarded by committee on an at-large basis.
With each serve, point, and set having a heightened sense of importance in Sioux Falls, Winona State volleyball carries a quiet confidence knowing it also has put together a 2021 body of work that allows their team to focus on what has worked for them this season: Win matches with a combination of offensive talent and defensive effort that have already provided Warrior Nation a record-breaking season.
As Winona State heads into their preparations this week, Getzin said, "The next phase of our season lies in front of us and I am excited to be a part of this journey!"
NSIC Volleyball Tournament tickets are on sale now at
Ticketmaster.com or at the Pentagon Ticket Office. Full details for the 2021 NSIC Volleyball Tournament are available
at this link.
For the most up to date news in Warrior Athletics, please visit:
www.WINONASTATEWARRIORS.com and
@WinonaStateATH.
About Winona State University Athletics:
The Winona State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, as an integral part of the educational mission of the institution, is committed to offering opportunities to experience academic and athletic excellence for our student-athletes through two simple words:
Graduate Champions.
Fourteen Warrior programs compete at the NCAA Division II level within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Winona State University competes as an affiliate member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in the sport of women's gymnastics.
