Saturday at the Corn Palace, Dakota Wesleyan takes on St. Xavier out of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference in the opening round of the NAIA National Volleyball Championship tournament. Tigers volleyball is competing in the first national tournament since 1990 and will be playing in the Corn Palace for the first time all season. The Tigers had played all previous home matches at the Christen Family Athletic Center.
DWU has been practicing in the Corn Palace all week long in preparation — and Tigers head coach Lindsay Wilber said her team is excited to play on the big stage. Coach Wilber said some things will be different playing at the Palace.
“Your serves will get floaty,” coach Wilber said, “but we’ve been practicing it every single day. In a bigger arena, actually, you serves move a little bit more just because of the air flow, so you become a better server in a bigger spot.”
Dakota Wesleyan enters the match with a 23-9 overall record and a 10-6 record in the GPAC. The St. Xavier Cougars went 28-3 overall and 18-0 in the Chicagoland Conference.
“They have a really good outside hitter. They’re really balanced,” coach Wilber said. “We’re going to have to be ready for them. Their middles run really quick on offense, so we will need to be ready for that.”
Senior outside Nadia Atton leads the Cougars with 513 kills, which ranks third nationally. Atton was named Chicagoland Conference Player of the Year on Thursday.
Dakota Wesleyan versus St. Xavier will be at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Corn Palace.
Check MitchellNOW.com for updates on this match, and all of the local sports happening this weekend. This includes an exclusive interview with Dakota Wesleyan right-side hitter and Mitchell native McKenzie Miller, which is up on MitchellNOW.com on Saturday.