An extremely busy two weeks awaits the Northern State men's basketball team:
Friday: The Wolves will scrimmage the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
This weekend: From Vermillion, NSU will travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to play Northern Iowa in an exhibition game at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The Wolves will return to Aberdeen after the game.
Monday-Tuesday: Practice at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen.
Nov. 7: Leave for Anaheim, Calif., for the three-game Division II Tip-Off Classic.
Nov. 9: vs. University of North Carolina-Pembroke at 11 a.m.
Nov. 10: vs. Grand Canyon of Arizona at 10:30 p.m.
Nov. 11: vs. Cal State Dominguez Hills at 3:30 p.m.
For those of you scoring at home, that is 4,335 miles in 10 days. Not only that, but the Wolves will have two home games the following weekend: vs. Dakota State at 8 p.m. Nov. 16 and vs. Dickinson State at 4 p.m. Nov. 18.
NSU third-year coach Paul Sather said his team will have great senior leadership in Geoffrey Firmin, Collin Pryor and Dustin Tetzlaff. He is also excited about his other returning players and freshman class.
"I am excited about our depth," he said.
The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference coaches picked NSU to finish eighth overall and third in the North Division. The NSIC schools will play 22 league games - one each vs. the opposing division and a home-and-away series with the teams within its own division. North teams on both the men's and women's side are Moorhead, St. Cloud, NSU, Duluth, Bemidji, Mary, Crookston and Minot.
Sather said his team's goal is to win the North Division. "Last season, we hit a wall and didn't finish," he said. "The season didn't end how we wanted it to. This year, we want to push through that wall."
The Wolves are likely to count on two sharp-shooting freshmen to help their cause as well. Last winter, Skye Warwick made 104 three-pointers to lead St. Thomas More to win the South Dakota State A title last winter. Mack Arvidson made 65 three-pointers to lead Grand Forks Red River to the North Dakota State A title.
Sather said if the Wolves stay healthy, "we'll surprise some people."
However, the team's health has already taken a hit. Tydan Storrusten, who was out last season with an injury, is out again this season.
NSU women
A veteran coach will direct a young Northern State women's basketball team this season.
In his 34th season, Curt Fredrickson is one of the winningest coaches in the nation with 707 wins and two national titles. After losing four seniors, the Wolves will be looking to some new faces to produce a winning team.
Fredrickson is excited about his players, but said it will take some time to develop his team. He looks for the Wolves probably to be a better second-half of the season kind of team.
The NSIC coaches picked NSU to finish 10th overall in the league and fourth in the North Division. Fredrickson said his team plans to surprise people, and that neither he nor his players "have never minded being the underdog before."
He added, "We have a lot of good young and older players. Now it is just a question of putting it all together."
The Wolves will be lead by its three captains: seniors Yvonne Freese and Sarah Hintz and junior Alison Kusler. The Wolves also are excited to have sophomore Rachel Krogman returning as its post after she was out for most of last season with an injury.
NSU will open its season at home by hosting a pair of doubleheaders at Wachs Arena. NSU will play South Dakota Tech at 6 p.m. Nov. 16 and Black Hills State at 6 p.m. Nov. 17. Mankato will play Black Hills State at 4 p.m. Nov. 16 and Tech at 4 p.m. Nov. 17.
The Wolves will then play two games in St. Paul the following weekend before starting its conference season at home against Moorhead on Dec. 1 (women at 5 p.m. and men at 7 p.m.).
See both NSU schedules in today's Scoreboard.
N.D. volleyball
When South Dakota high school volleyball fans talk about a region of the state that has great volleyball, they often point to Northeast South Dakota. Sometimes overlooked in that conversation are two of our North Dakota neighbors with great programs.
The North Dakota high school volleyball teams from Oakes and Ellendale won district titles Monday night on their home courts.
District 1B champion Oakes will advance to the Region 1B tourney in Oakes Nov. 5-8. District 5B champion Ellendale will advance to the Region 3B tourney Nov. 5-8 in LaMoure.
Nicole Warren of Oakes was named the district's outstanding senior athlete and her mom, Oakes volleyball coach Kathy Warren, was named coach of the year. Wow, what a night for the Warren family. The same thing happened in District 5B as Laurie Good of LaMoure was named coach of the year and her daughter, Megan, was named senior athlete of the year.
Joining the younger Warren on the all-district team were teammates Lydia Hansen and Sydney Breitbach. The rest of the district awards and the championship game stats are in today's Scoreboard.
Ellendale, meanwhile, placed three players on the 5B all-district team: Lucinda Stoppleworth, Dacey Fuller and Madilyn Bommersbach. The rest of those awards are in today's Scoreboard. Stats from Ellendale's championship game was in the Tuesday edition.
My picks
I forgot to publish my district volleyball picks. Don't worry, I made them before any results were in. By the way, I am picking Oakes and Ellendale to win their volleyball regionals next week. Onto the South Dakota districts:
District 1AA: Sioux Falls O'Gorman.
District 2AA: Sioux Falls Washington.
District 3AA: Aberdeen Central.
District 4AA: Rapid City Central.
District 1A: Aberdeen Roncalli.
District 2A: Sisseton.
District 3A: Redfield-Doland.
District 4A: Sioux Valley.
District 5A: Elkton-Lake Benton.
District 6A: Sioux Falls Christian.
District 7A: Tea.
District 8A: Dakota Valley.
District 9A: Tri-Valley.
District 10A: Wagner.
District 11A: Mobridge-Pollock.
District 12A: Miller.
District 13A: Winner.
District 14A: Pine Ridge.
District 15A: Custer.
District 16A: Belle Fourche.
District 1B: Summit.
District 2B: Warner.
District 3B: Arlington.
District 4B: Oldham-Ramona/Rutland.
District 5B: Highmore-Harrold.
District 6B: Herreid/Selby Area.
District 7B: Parker.
District 8B: Viborg-Hurley.
District 9B: James Valley Christian.
District 10B: White Lake.
District 11B: Hanson.
District 12B: Andes Central.
District 13B: Kadoka Area.
District 14B: Edgemont.
District 15B: Timber Lake.
District 16B: Faith.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News. Reach him at jpapendick@aberdeen
news.com.
Blog: aberdeensports.net/inthehuddle.
Twitter:#jpapendick