Minnesota Duluth volleyball coach Jim Boos laughed when asked if it felt like two months since the Bulldogs played their last match.
“It’s been a bit,” he said.
Fourth-ranked UMD (25-4) opens play against No. 6 Winona State (26-5) in the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament at 5 p.m. today at Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.
The Bulldogs were disappointed after getting knocked out in the opening round of the NSIC tournament 3-2 by Wayne State on Nov. 16 at Romano Gym. That loss, however, could prove to be a blessing as the Bulldogs have had more than two weeks to heal while fine-tuning their game, rather than constantly prepping for an upcoming opponent.
“Honestly, now I’m really excited about it,” Boos said. “We got additional time off to rest the legs. This is as fresh as we’ve looked since August, and you can just see a different pop in their step.”
UMD would like to follow Wayne State’s 2015 lead.
A year ago, the Wildcats were knocked out by the Bulldogs in the first round of the conference tournament only to get hot, win the region and advance to the national semifinals.
“We’re hoping to use that as our road map,” Boos said.
UMD had its streak of 13 straight NCAA tournament appearance snapped in 2015 despite going 23-8, being ranked No.10 in the final national poll and having a pair of wins over eventual national champion Wheeling Jesuit.
That’s because the Central Region is so elite. This year’s region tournament features seven of the top eight ranked teams in the country. While the region winner might not win the national title, one can easily argue the region tournament is better than the Elite Eight.
The UMD-Winona State winner advances to likely play No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. The championship is 7 p.m. Saturday, with all matches at Gangelhoff Center.
“If you play the No. 6 team in the country, nobody would even think looking past them,” Boos said. “But because of the Concordia-UMD rivalry, and that we’ve been fortunate to beat Winona in our two matchups so far (3-1 and 3-0), people start thinking ahead. Certainly, that isn’t what we’re talking about behind the scenes.”
Winona State is playing in its first NCAA Division II tournament.
“It’s going to be zero-zero when we start,” Boos said. “We don’t get any head start because of how the first two matches went and our girls understand that. We have to go out and perform like we did the first two times.”
