MORRIS, Minn. – Minnesota Morris hosts both volleyball and football this weekend in a pair of senior day matchups. Volleyball hosts Northland at 7 p.m. on tonight. Tomorrow football will welcome Eureka to town at noon in a Halloween showdown. Men's soccer is also in action, playing at Crown at 5 p.m. today.
VOLLEYBALL The Cougars (19-11, 6-1 UMAC) wrap up regular season play on senior night with a match against Northland.
Abby Tietz,
Brooke Decker,
Cori Becker and
Taylor Nordby will be honored prior to the match. A victory would give the Cougars 20 wins this season, marking the fourth straight year with at least 20 wins.
Next week UMM will welcome Wisconsin-Superior to the PE Center at 7 p.m. for a UMAC semi-final match. The Cougars will try to rebound after a tough loss to Northwestern on Wednesday night.
Morris can still earn a share of the UMAC title if they can beat Northland and Northwestern would fall to Martin Luther tonight in New Ulm.
Northland has not beaten the Cougars since 2009, since then UMM has won 11 straight matches. The Cougars are 18-8 all-time against the LumberJills and 9-4 in home matches.
MEN'S SOCCER Morris (5-12-1) wraps up regular season play with a non-conference matchup against Crown College tonight at 5 p.m. Earlier this year the Cougars beat the Storm 1-0 in Morris.
Luqman Barre's 37
th minute goal was the difference in the match.
The Cougars are looking for some momentum heading into the UMAC semi-finals next Wednesday when UMM heads to Wisconsin-Superior. Morris has scored a goal in each of the last four matches.
Eleven different Cougars have scored a goal this season, led by
Joshua Bartels who has five goals. Bartels has scored his five goals on just eight shots on goal this year.
FOOTBALL Saturday is just the sixth all-time meeting between the two teams. Morris (4-4, 4-3 UMAC) leads the series 3-2 but the Red Devils have won the past two matchups.
Before the game the Cougars will honor nine players;
Andrew Fellows,
Shain Powers,
Willie Fust,
Jacob Wirz,
Clayton Saiz,
Michael Engler,
Hunter McFall,
Aaron Will,
Drew Marshall.
Morris ranks fourth in the country with 11 fumble recoveries defensively. The Cougars have been led by Jeremy Slonecker who ranks first in the nation with five fumble recoveries. Eureka comes into the game with 17 fumbles this year, losing just five of them. If the Red Devils put the ball on the ground Morris will need to pick it up in order to pick up the victory.
Minnesota Morris special teams have had a good year. The team has blocked two punts and five kicks which rank 13th and 15th in the NCAA. They are also glad to have to
John Hoff who is 19th in made field goals per game and 8-12 on made field goals.
Morris needs just 84 yards to reach 1,000 rushing yards this season. The last 1,000 yard rushing year by a Cougar team was in 2012, when the team rushed for 1,074 yards.
JC Cummings leads the team with 289 yards.
Eureka has won two straight contests, beating Iowa Wesleyan and Crown, prior to that they had lost four straight. The Red Devils offense has been able to move the ball this season but have faltered in the red-zone. They rank 202nd in the NCAA in red-zone offense. A big part of the success is due to the fact they have allowed just four sacks all year, which is 5th in the country. Defensively, they rank 55th in scoring defense and 44th in total defense in the NCAA.
