Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

UMAC Game of the Week Archives

ST. PAUL -- The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Game of the Week is a feature that takes place each week throughout the conference portion of the season with one contest being selected and highlighted as the UMAC Game of the Week.

The week's UMAC Game of the Week is Saturday's volleyball game between Martin Luther College and the University of Northwestern. The Eagles are currently 6-1 in conference play and rank second in the conference standings while the Knights sit one game back at 5-2 and third in the UMAC standings. Saturday's game, which is scheduled for a 1 p.m. first serve, will be the second meeting of the two teams so far this season. Just three weeks ago Northwestern earned a 3-2 victory in a five-set thriller. With both teams striving for a UMAC Postseason Tournament berth and possible home court advantage, Saturday's game has all of the key ingredients for an exciting rematch.

About the Knights
MLC was unable to complete its comeback attempt in an exciting five-set match in the first meeting between the two programs, and will be looking to take the next step this weekend at UNW. The Knights have won four of five matches since that loss on September 28, and enter the weekend in third place in the league standings.

Rebecca Engelbrecht will look to repeat her performance from that first contest, where she led all players with 27 kills (with a .343 attack percentage), and also finished with a team-best 27 digs. The two-time First Team All-UMAC performer and four-time UMAC Offensive Player of the Week has been a top hitter in the UMAC all season, and has stepped up her game in conference play with 4.62 kills per game with an attack percentage of .326.

Kayla Schoeneck had 18 kills against UNW the first time around, while setter Miranda Maasz finished that match with 60 assists, helping the Knights to an attack efficiency of .325. On defense, libero Alex Anthon had 21 digs, while Morgan Kumbier and Heather Danell each had five blocks.

About the Eagles
Northwestern finished the first half of its UMAC schedule with a 6-1 record with the Eagles’ lone loss coming in five sets to Minnesota Morris. UNW still has its sights set on a third consecutive league championship and knows that each of the remaining seven matches (including a Friday night home contest against Bethany Lutheran) is equally important in attaining that goal.

The Eagles’ .269 attacking percentage in UMAC contests is a conference-best, as are Northwestern’s marks in assists and solo blocks. Kendra Korporal, who had 20 kills in the Eagles’ Sept. 28 battle against Martin Luther in New Ulm, Minn., leads the Purple and Gold with a 2.66 kills per set average and a .184 attacking rate. The 2012 AVCA Central Region Rookie of the Year and All-American Honorable Mention has battled a nagging injury all season, but has still been able to produce solid numbers from her outside hitter position. Fellow All-American (Second Team) player Krista Stoltz is on the verge of reaching the 4,000 career assists mark, needing just 91 to hit that mark. Stoltz is one of two Eagles players to be among the top 10 in the NCAA statistical rankings as her 10.66 assists per set is in the top tier of players nationwide.

Cari Miller’s blocks mark of 1.31 per set is currently seventh-best in the nation. Miller and her fellow front row blockers will need to play a key role in trying to stop Martin Luther’s Rebecca Engelbrecht, who had 27 kills in the last meeting.

Game Notes
- Northwestern has won the last 15 meetings between the two teams, with MLC’s last win coming in the 2006 season.

- Currently 6-1 in UMAC play, Northwestern hasn’t lost two conference matches in the same season since the 2010 campaign when UNW went 11-3.

- MLC's Rebecca Engelbrecht has now won UMAC Offensive Player of the Week four times this season. She leads the conference and ranks 19th in the nation in kills per set (4.12) so far this season.

- UNW’s Krista Stoltz (four) and MLC’s Miranda Maasz (three) have combined to win all seven UMAC Setter of the Week awards so far this season.

- UNW's libero Lexi Bertsch has won UMAC Player of the Week honors multiple times in 2013 and is the reigning UMAC Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week.

- UNW head coach Beth Wilmeth has 227 victories in 10 seasons at the team’s helm.

- Four-set matches have generally not gone in Northwestern’s favor this season as the Eagles are 1-4 when the contest ends after four sets. Northwestern has gone 7-4 in three-set matches and 3-3 mark in five sets.

Northwestern Recap | Martin Luther Recap Final Score: UNW 3, MLC 1

For information on other contests around the league this week, visit the UMAC's live scoreboard.