The Northern State volleyball team is picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference preseason ratings, but that doesn’t matter to NSU coach Brent Aldridge.

The Wolves are picked to finish seventh in the NSIC despite returning their entire team.

“I don’t have a problem with it, pick us 15th,” Aldridge said. “That doesn’t really bother me.”

And it probably shouldn’t when every single starter returns, including 6th year Keri Walker.

However, most teams in the league have their star players returning as well.

“A lot of people came back, like Keri, who’s a 6th year,” said Aldridge. “Well, national player of the year (Kenzie Foley) is at St. Cloud and she’s back, and D1 outside up at CSP, (Emma) Schmidt is back. And the two middles down at Wayne are back … the two middles from Sioux Falls both came back.”

On the Wolves’ side of the net, they have improved from last year already without seeing competition yet.

“We take numbers every day, and our numbers have been better than last year at this time,” Aldridge said. “We’ll see how that goes when we start playing other teams, but so far so good.”

It is a huge positive when four out of six starters returning earned NSIC all-conference honors last year. Abby Meister earned first team, and Keri Walker, Abby Brooks, and Natalia Szybinska all earned second team.

The NSIC is one of the toughest, if not the toughest, conference to play in for volleyball. In the preseason rankings, the NSIC has 5 teams in the top 25: Wayne State at 4, Concordia St-Paul at 5, St. Cloud at 10, Southwest Minnesota State at 11, and Minnesota Duluth at 16 with Winona State receiving votes.

“Wayne State will probably be No. 1, maybe top 4 in the nation by the time we play them, and then it’s off we go,” said Aldridge. “Another year of playing probably 15 teams in the top 25.”

The Wolves will prepare for that demanding NSIC schedule by opening their season today against Northwest Missouri State which is currently receiving votes at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls.

“I have some film on them,” said Aldridge. “But they return a lot of people.”

Northwest Missouri State isn’t the only tough opponent on the Wolves’ preseason schedule. They will also face Wayne State (Mich.) which is also receiving votes on Sept. 14.

“Our schedule this preseason, the eighth matches are definitely harder than last year,” Alrdridge said.

“And then we start off with Wayne State and Sioux Falls … We’ll worry about them when we get them,” he said.

The Wolves will look to make a late season run into December this year after just falling short in the first round of the NSIC Tournament last year, losing to St. Cloud State.

“Just hope to represent Northern in the brightest light, and if we do that then I think we can put this season to rest,” Aldridge said. “We hope it ends in December. … Just trying to get incrementally better every day.”

The Wolves will open up conference play with two home games Sept. 20-21 against the University of Sioux Falls on Friday, followed by the fourth-ranked team in the country, Wayne State (Neb.) on Saturday.