PREVIEW: Volleyball begins NCAA Tournament Thursday versus UMSL

THIS WEEK'S MATCHES
• No. 23 Michigan Tech plays No. 22 Missouri-St. Louis Thursday to begin the NCAA Midwest Regional.
• First serve is set for 1 p.m. Eastern at Neil Carey Arena on the campus of Lewis University.
• Tech is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season and at Lewis for the second time in three years.
• Tech is the No. 6 seed and UMSL is the No. 3 seed.

OTHER REGIONAL MATCHUPS
• 3:30 p.m. | No. 2 Hillsdale versus No. 7 Indianapolis
• 5:00 p.m. | No. 4 Ferris State versus No. 5 Rockhurst
• 8:30 p.m. | No. 1 Lewis versus No. 8 Saginaw Valley State

AVCA RANKING
• Michigan Tech is ranked No. 23 in the latest AVCA Coaches' Top 25 Poll.
• Tech was No. 22 on November 11, No. 20 on November 5, No. 21 on October 29, No. 22 on October 21, No. 24 on October 15, No. 21 on September 9, and has received votes in every other poll this season.
• The No. 20 ranking was the highest since the preseason poll in 1998 and the highest regular-season ranking since 1996.
• Tech was ranked in five polls in 2018. The Black and Gold spent two weeks at No. 24 and three at No. 25 last season.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
• Missouri-St. Louis is 29-4 overall, recording the program's most wins since the 1991 team was 39-11.
• The Tritons were 12-3 in the GLVC, finishing in a tie for second after being picked 10th in the league's preseason coaches poll.
• The Tritons lost to Rockhurst in the GLVC Championship Game after winning their previous nine matches.
• UMSL earned its first NCAA bid since 2010.
• The Tritons began the season 12-0 for the first time in program history.
• UMSL is 15-1 in neutral site matches, 8-2 on the road and was 6-1 at home.

ALL-MIDWEST REGION
• Laura De Marchi and Olivia Ghormley were named All-Midwest Region by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (D2CCA).
• Both were honored by the organizations last year and will no advance to the All-American ballots.

ALL-GLIAC SELECTIONS
• Laura De Marchi – GLIAC Setter of the Year & All-GLIAC First Team (third straight season)
• Olivia Ghormley – GLIAC Attacker of the Year & All-GLIAC First Team (second season in a row)
• Matt Jennings – GLIAC Coach of the Year (Also honored in 2017)
• MacAulay Petersen – All-GLIAC Second Team (Also honored in 2017)
• Megan Utlak – All-GLIAC Honorable Mention (Second straight season)

ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
• Junior Laura De Marchi has been named to the 2019 CoSIDA Academic All-District Volleyball First Team. De Marchi is a setter from Milan, Italy and holds a 3.83 grade-point average in Biomedical Engineering.
• She now advances to the CoSIDA Academic All-America ballot which will be announced in December.

STATISTICAL RANKINGS
• Tech is second in the GLIAC in hitting percentage (.243)
• The Huskies rank third in GLIAC in assists per set (12.78), kills per set (13.62), digs per set (17.71) and opponent hitting percentage (.170)
• Laura De Marchi is fourth nationally in career assists per set (11.67) and fifth amongst setters in all three divisions
• Anna Jonynas leads the GLIAC in services aces (70)
• Olivia Ghormley is ninth nationally in career kills per set (3.75)
• De Marchi leads the GLIAC in assists per set (11.54), ranking seventh in the nation
• Ghormley is third the GLIAC in kills per set (4.04), ranking 23rd in the nation
• Ghormley is third in the GLIAC in points per set (4.45)
• Megan Utlak is second in the GLIAC in digs per set (4.75)
• Rachel Ping (.303) is sixth and Emilia Widen (.297) is seventh in the GLIAC in hitting percentage

MILESTONES THIS SEASON
• Junior Olivia Ghormley recorded her 1,000th career kill on September 28 against Lake Superior State at the SDC Gym.
• Junior Laura De Marchi tallied her 3,000th career assist on October 4 at Northwood.
• Junior Megan Utlak hit the 1,000-dig mark for her career on October 18 against Drury at the Crossover.
• Junior Anna Jonynas tallied her 1,000th career dig on November 8 versus Ferris State at the SDC Gym.
• Junior MacAulay Petersen notched her 1,000th career point on November 15 at Saginaw Valley State. She also has 983 career kills.

GLIAC TOURNAMENT
• GLIAC Championship – The Huskies fell 3-0 at Ferris State in its second appearance in the GLIAC Championship in three years.
• GLIAC Semifinal – Tech swept NMU for the third time this season to advance to the title game. The match was played at Ferris State.
• GLIAC Quarterfinal – The Huskies defeated Grand Valley State 3-1 at the SDC Gym to advance to the semifinal.
• MacAulay Petersen and Rachel Ping were honored on the GLIAC All-Tournament Team.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Huskies finished the regular season 21-6 overall and 13-3 in the GLIAC, winning 20 matches three seasons in a row for the first time since 1997.
• The 6-0 GLIAC start was the best for the Huskies in over 20 years.
• Tech is 28-1 in the GLIAC against teams other than Ferris since the start of last season.
• The Huskies are 39-9 in conference play since the start of 2017 with losses only to Ferris State, Grand Valley State, Northern Michigan, and Saginaw Valley State.
• Tech is 1-6 versus the current top 25. The Huskies defeated Southwest Minnesota State and fell against Upper Iowa, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth, and Ferris State.
• Tech is 6-1 against opponents in neutral site matches.
• The Huskies went 8-3 against its nonconference opponents.
• The Huskies are 7-3 in road matches so far this season.

COACH JENNINGS
• Head coach Matt Jennings enters his eighth season and has won 134 matches overall.
• Under Jennings, the Huskies have gone from the last place in the conference to nationally ranked and in the postseason.
• Jennings has coached the Huskies to three straight NCAA tournament appearances in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
• He was named the GLIAC Coach of the Year in 2019 and 2017 and led the team to a program-record 10 straight wins to start the 2016 season.

AT HOME
• The Huskies went 10-2 at the SDC Gym in 2019 with seven of the nine wins being sweeps. The losses were to current No. 21 Upper Iowa in the Keweenaw Classic and No. 18 Ferris State.
• Tech finished 7-1 at home in 2018.

GLIAC NORTH PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
• Olivia Ghormley – October 21
• Olivia Ghormley – October 14
• Olivia Ghormley – September 30
• Laura De Marchi – September 23
• Olivia Ghormley – September 9

SWEEPING THE COMPETITION
• Tech has 14 3-0 sweeps this season.
• The Huskies had six straight sweeps to begin the 2015 season and finished the season with 14.
• Tech had 12 sweeps in each of the last two seasons.

CROSSOVER ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
• Laura De Marchi and Olivia Ghormley were named to the 12th annual Midwest Region Crossover All-Tournament Team for the second year in a row. Of 41 teams at the Crossover, Tech was the only team with two players honored.
• De Marchi set up the Tech offense with 139 assists, averaging 12.64 per set. She added 30 digs, averaging 2.73 per set, six kills, and five blocks.
• Ghormley led Tech with 58 kills on the weekend, averaging 5.27 per set. She hit .329 with only 12 errors on 140 attempts while adding 28 digs, four service aces, and two block assists.

LAST SEASON
The Huskies are coming off back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament and three straight second-place finishes in the GLIAC North Division. Tech has won 20 matches in back-to-back season, including the fourth-highest win total and third-fewest losses in a single-season with a 23-7 record in 2018. The Huskies also posted a mark of 14-2 in the GLIAC, the second most conference wins in program history, and the second-highest winning percentage against GLIAC competition in team history (.875).

AVCA ALL-AMERICANS
Outside hitter Olivia Ghormley (Third Team) and junior setter Laura De Marchi (Honorable Mention) were AVCA All-Americans a year ago. Both earned major league awards as Ghormley was the GLIAC Attacker of the Year and De Marchi the GLIAC Setter of the Year for the second straight season. Ghormley tallied 518 kills with an average of 4.58 per set to lead the GLIAC and rank sixth in the nation. De Marchi racked up 1,254 assists and averaged 11.72 per set to lead the league.