Volleyball Preview: Blue Devils head over to St. Catherine tournament

Day One Live Stats | Day Two Live Stats | St. Kate's Invitational Website

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (6-5, 0-0 WIAC) will be at the College of St. Catherine Invitational where they will take on Hamline University (7-0, 0-0 MIAC) and St. Olaf College (4-3, 0-0 MIAC), Friday, Sept. 19, then will see Grinnell College (4-8, 0-0 MWC) and host St. Catherine (8-5, 0-0 MIAC), Saturday, Sept. 20.

ON-LINE: All home Blue Devil matches are available in a live video stream.

BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT:  The Blue Devils went 1-4 last week, with their lone win of the week coming over Simpson College, 3-1, at the Gustavus Adolphus Invitational. Stout opened the week with a 3-2 loss to 24th ranked Augsburg, Sept. 10, followed by a 3-0 loss to Bethel, a 3-1 loss to Buena Vista and a 3-0 loss to 20th ranked Coe College at Gustavus. | vs. Augsburg Story and Stats | vs. Bethel/Simpson Story and Stats | vs. Buena Vista and Coe Story and Stats

A LOOK AT STOUT:  The Blue Devils return three seniors to the squad - setter Karley Wiensch, middle hitter Morgan Denny, and defensive specialist Nicole Bradford. Both Wiensch and Denny have started or seen considerable action since their freshmen seasons. Junior hitter Laura Reiter led the Blue Devils years in the attack, averaging 3.00 kills per set. Denny was just behind with 2.35 kills and led the team in blocks for the third consecutive season, averaging 0.83 total blocks per set. Wiensch handled the majority of the setting, averaging 9.46 assists per contest. Wiensch was the team leader in service aces with 33 and Bradford had 25. Bradford led the team in digs with 3.41. Stout returns eight players from last year's squad, and brings 10 new faces to the roster. Stout was picked to finish eighth, according to a WIAC preseason poll. Denny leads the way for Stout, averaging 3.28 kills per set, ranking in the top five of the WIAC, and 0.85 blocks. Denny has delivered double digit kills in eight of the 11 matches and has at least one solo block in nine matches.  Kaylee Jacobs is averaging 2.39 kills and Laura Reiter 2.59. Wiensch is averaging 8.83 assists per set, Molly Brion leads the team in digs with 3.46 per set and Nicole Bradford is second in digs with 3.52 and averages 0.36 service aces. In 21 sets played, freshman Becky Bradshaw has 13 service aces and leads the team with a 0.62 average.  | 2014 Stats | 2013 Stats

A LOOK AT HAMLINE: The Pipers are perfect on the season, led by Katie Ayres 3.33 kills per set. But the Pipers have a balanced attack with seven players putting down more than two kills per contest. Hamline is solid at the bloacking line with five players averaging more than 0.50 blocks per set. Gabriella Feldt is averaging 0.87 and Stephanie Kaup 0.81. Hamline is the only MIAC team still undefeated. |  2014 Stats

A LOOK AT ST. OLAF:  The Oles have been idle since Sept. 6. They return to action Sept. 17 against Bethel before heading to the St. Kate''s invite. Devon Flohrs is averaging 3.31 kills per set. Sophie Schwartz in averaging 0.77 kills.  | 2014 Stats

A LOOK AT GRINNELL: Claire Wiedman is averaging 2.23 kills per set and Natalie Duncombe 2.22 kills. Rebecca Rassmussen is averaging 0.74 blocks.. |  2014 Stats

A LOOK AT ST. CATHERINE:  Alyssa Besch is averaging 2.27 kills per set and Megan Lindenfelder 2.21 kills. Amber Ziehmer is averaging 0.77 blocks.  |  2014 Stats

TEAM CAPTAINS: Captains for the 2014 season are Morgan Denny, Nicole Bradford, Laura Reiter and Molly Brion

UW-STOUT COACH LAURA EVANS: Coach Laura Evans (6-5) is in her first year as the Blue Devil coach, replacing Jill Jolliff, who completed 21 seasons as the program's head coach, the longest tenure of any UW--Stout volleyball coach. Evans, the former Laura Hegerle, played her college volleyball at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn. She has been an assistant coach at Colorado Christian, Augsburg College and Luther College.

QUICK HITS:   The Blue Devils are coming off their second consecutive 15-win season...preseason camp was very competitive, with nearly 30 potential players in before the roster was trimmed to 18...Stout will face Carleton and Macalester colleges on both their first and second days of competion. The Blue Devils open with the pair at the St. Olaf Tournament this weekend, then also open the Macalester Tournament with the same teams, Friday, Sept. 5...Stout has only one home date in September (Friday, Sept. 26 vs. UW-Platteville in the conference opener)...and four home dates in October...Stout faces eight of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) teams at some point this fall, and face Carleton, Macalester, and Bethel twice. The only WIAC school the Blue Devils are scheduled to meet twice is UW-Oshkosh, but a trip to the WIAC Tournament will change that.

AWARDS: Morgan Denny was named to the Macalester College all-tournament team, Sept. 6...Kaylee Jacobs was selected to the all-tournament team at the St. Olaf/Carleton Invitational, Aug. 29...Karley Wiensch was an honorable mention selection to the 2013 All-WIAC Volleyball team...Morgan Denny earned Academic All-District honors...the entire 2013 squad was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) with the Team Academic Award for the fourth time in five years....

DOWN THE ROAD: The Blue Devils will open the home and conference portion of their schedule when they host UW-Platteville, Friday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.