GRAND FORKS, N.D. – (UND Athletics) Since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, dates have been the mileposts for which one uses to signify the length of time in quarantine, isolation, distance-learning, or practicing without competition.
While dates have always marked the time, 2020 was different as the University of North Dakota volleyball program had its season postponed or canceled, like so many around the country.
On June 8, the Fighting Hawks announced its schedule ahead of the season, including trips to California, Washington, and Kentucky during the non-conference season. Two months later, on Aug. 11, The Summit League announced a postponement of fall competitions, leaving the season in question. On Oct. 28, however, the Fighting Hawks and their counterparts learned that The Summit League season was set to begin at the end of January.
With a return timetable set, second-year head coach Jeremiah Tiffin decided to reach out to North Dakota State about playing a non-conference series with the Bison before the Summit League season began, agreeing to play on Friday, Jan. 22, and Saturday, Jan. 23 in Fargo.
Friday’s match will be the first serve for The Summit League as the Fighting Hawks and Bison will open the spring at 1 p.m. Central at Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse. The matchup will be the Hawks’ first competition since the end of the 2019 regular season on Nov. 15, 2019, in Tulsa, Okla., against Oral Roberts. That’s a total of 433 days, or one year, two months, and six days to be exact.
Since then, UND volleyball has had to find its identity and the offseason was a good time for that Tiffin has said.
“When we got the team back together and we weren’t traveling all the time like we normally do in the fall, it gave the team more down time to focus on academics, but it also gave them time to do team stuff away from volleyball,” Tiffin said.
“Normally when we’re on the road, we’re able to do that but there’s always a volleyball match in there, and we didn’t have that this last fall which was great,” he continued. “It allowed us to focus on the team side of things without the pressure of playing a game and allowed us to focus towards our culture and our culture has improved a lot. I wish we would’ve played in the fall but I think we took advantage of our time that’s led into the spring.”
The Fighting Hawks welcome newcomers Alexa Albinson and Elizabeth Norris to the 2020-21 team that returns nine letter winners and two redshirts from a season ago. UND will have to replace its top-attacker, Honorable Mention All-Summit selection Ashley Brueggeman, and its top-blocker Lydia Rutten, but Tiffin says the team has worked on a new, up-tempo style heading into the season.
“Last year we were very right side heavy with Ashley Brueggeman. This year we didn’t have that kind of player coming back,” said Tiffin, “so for us, it was about how do we make our team better? Throughout last spring and this past fall, we worked tempo, tempo, tempo, temp, tempo. Our sets are now really fast. Just as a comparison, we’re about a tenth of a second off of the U.S. National Team speed with our sets to the outside so we’re trying to go fast, we’re trying to use our athleticism to get teams off balance so you’re going to see a fast, fast offense and a diverse offense too.”
In Tiffin’s first season, the Fighting Hawks finished 12-18 and finished just shy of qualifying for The Summit League Volleyball Tournament. The Fighting Hawks will open conference play where it ended it last season with a pair of matches at Oral Roberts on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
North Dakota returns a strong core of players that appeared in 75 sets or more in Lexi Ahrens, Sara Antic, Darian Chwialkowski, McKenzie Damon, Madi Hart, Taylor Riedl, and Peyton Sewell.
Fans can watch the season-opening weekend on GoBison.com/Watch free of charge. Fans can also follow live stats at GoBison.com and follow @UNDvolleyball on Twitter for in-game updates.
