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The Northern State volleyball team looks to get back on tract this weekend as the Wolves play a pair of road matches this weekend.

NSU is coming off its first loss of the season Tuesday night when the Wolves fell to MSU Moorhead 3-1. Northern will look to rebound first Friday night as it will play its first ranked opponent of 2013 in No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State in a 7 p.m. match. Saturday, the Wolves travel to face Sioux Falls in a 4 p.m. tilt.

Southwest is one of two teams in the NSIC with perfect 3-0 conference marks, having beat Augustana (3-1), Wayne State (3-1) and USF (3-2). The Mustangs are led by 10^th year head coach Terry Culhane. Culhane is a perfect 16-0 against the Wolves in his career. On the court, SMSU has three players with 100 or more kills in Abbey Thissen (167), Whitney Burmeister (132) and Claire Sames (124). Setter Emilee Gutzmer is averaging 11.58 assists per set for Southwest.

Sioux Falls heads into this weekend's action with an 8-3 mark overall and is 1-2 in league play. The Cougars beat intra-city rival Augustana 3-2 for its lone conference win. The Cougars are led by Emily Johnson's 143 kills in 2013. USF is hitting .271 as a team this season while holding opponents to just a .190 attack percentage.

In their loss to Moorhead, the Wolves were led by Kelsey Chambers, who recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 21 kills and 17 digs in the match. Chambers also hit .409 in the loss. Sami Nygaard also had a big night for NSU as she tied a career-high with 23 digs against the Dragons while Drew Smith registered 43 assists.

The loss snapped the Wolves' second-best winning-streak in program history (nine). It also ended Northern's best start in school history. NSU is 0-2 against Southwest and 1-0 against USF, under Aldridge.