Northern State University (NSU) Athletics

2006 Season Wrap-up

NSU Volleyball Team Makes First-Ever NCAA Tournament Berth

The Northern State volleyball team finished the 2006 season with a 17-13 overall record and went 10-8 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The team made it’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance after sneaking in at 8th place in the North Central Region with a 12-10 record. The Wolves were once again matched up with national powerhouse Concordia-St. Paul, who ended NSU’s season in three straight games. Northern had three players named All-Conference for 2006. Odemaris Diaz made the First Team, while senior Kellie Heier and sophomore Melanie Perez were named Honorable Mention.

Senior Odemaris Diaz
The Wolves had five letterwinners returning to action this season, but just two players were regular starters from the 2005 squad. With seven new players on the roster, including five 2005 red-shirts, the Wolves had big strides to make early on. Several young players earned their positions on the court and surprised the league as standout players, driving NSU to a successful season.

Northern started the season off at the Nebraska-Kearney Invite, posting two wins before being matched up against two nationally-ranked teams in #23 Rockhurst University and #8 Nebraska-Kearney. The Wolves notched two losses, but nearly overtook UNK, the 2005 national
runner-up, in a marathon match. They went up 2-0 with wins in the first two games, but UNK’s offense overtook the Wolves in the following three games and NSU fell 2-3. Kelsey Aden and Odemaris Diaz were named to the All-Tournament team as NSU went 2-2 on the weekend.

The season progressed with a mixture of wins and losses. The Wolves strung together four-match winning streaks twice in the season and lost more than two straight matches just once. They opened NSIC play with a 5-2 record before hitting a tough section of their schedule in early October. The Wolves went down in four straight NSIC matches, losing to Concordia-St. Paul, Wayne State, Winona State, and Southwest MN State. Except for the Warriors, each of these opponents were ranked nationally at the time of play. With an 11-11 overall record and having fallen to 5-6 in the league, the Wolves showed a gritty determination throughout the remainder of the regular season, winning five of their last six regular season games. One of their most momentus wins came against MSU Moorhead, a team that had swept the Wolves in three games in September. Northern exacted revenge on October 14, keeping the Dragons to a .053 hitting average and taking the match in three straight games.

The momentum of October carried into the NSIC Tournament the first weekend of November, where fifth-place NSU overtook fourth-place MSU Moorhead once again, this time in five games, and advanced to the NSIC semis. The win was a must-have for the Wolves and secured them an eighth seed in the NCAA Tournament. The match took several swings before the Wolves claimed the victory; NSU had to rally back from a 2-1 deficit with wins in the final two games. The Wolves leaped over their previous season high of 70 kills with an 82-kill performance and also posted a season high 132 digs on the match. Odemaris Diaz pounded out 24 of these kills, a career high mark for her and a season high mark for any NSU player. Kelsey Aden also had a career high night in kills with 22. She led the team with seven blocks. Emily Knaeble had a double-double effort, chipping in 10 kills and 24 digs, while Melanie Perez led the team with 34 digs. Kellie Heier led her team to victory with a career high 66 assists, 16 digs, and four blocks.

The Wolves were matched up with Concordia-St. Paul in both the NSIC semis and the NCAA quarters. The Golden Bears, who have given up just a single game in matches played against the Wolves in more than three years, dominated NSU in both of these matches, taking 3-0 wins on both occasions.

Northern State’s main strengths in 2006 were on the defensive side of the ball, where they led the league in both digs (21.91/g) and blocks (2.63/g). Offensively, the team came in sixth in the league in kills per game (13.78) and seventh in hitting percentage (.162).

The Wolves had several offensive and defensive leaders in 2006, the most notable being senior outside hitter Odemaris Diaz (Vega Alsa, PR). Diaz posted 446 kills on the season, coming in seventh in the NSIC with 3.84 kills per game. She hit in double figures in all but three matches this season. Red-shirt freshman Kelsey Aden (St. James, MN) was one of the main reasons that the Wolves led the NSIC in blocking this season. Aden averaged 1.14 blocks per game, totaling 132 roofs on the season. She also came up with 318 kills as NSU’s second-leading hitter. Junior Emily Knaeble (Andover, MN) made the move to the leftside in 2006 and became one of NSU’s most consistent players, tallying 304 kills and 372 digs.

Kellie Heier (Aberdeen, SD) wrapped up her career by leading the Wolves with 1,250 set assists. She moved in as NSU’s second all-time leading setter with 3,428 assists. Heier was also the team’s second-leading defender with 428 digs. She had 25 double-double performances this season in assists and digs.

Sophomore transfer Melanie Perez (Rio Piedras, PR) was the Wolves’ biggest surprise player of the year, finishing the season ranked 16th in the nation for digs per game (5.97). She led the NSIC on this front after marking 687 digs in 2006. She finished all but one
match with double figures in digs, surpassing the 20+ mark 20 times and the 30+ mark six times.

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Northern State University (located in Aberdeen, SD) is an NCAA Division II institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
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