Sean Arbaut/MSU athletics Minot State outside hitter Shelby Spuller (8) jumps up to attack the ball in a Division II volleyball game played last season at the MSU Dome. Spuller, a senior, is currently four kills away from 1,000 kills in her collegiate career.

Eight matches down and the Beavers still have a goose egg in the win column. While the 0-8 overall record is off-putting, third-year head coach Dana Cordova wanted to put her team to the test.

The Minot State volleyball team wasn’t going to be given any easy wins at the start of the season.

“We scheduled harder tournaments this year,” Cordova said. “In the past, we have gone to some of our opening weekend tournaments and got some wins. But, I didn’t think they prepared us for our conference, which we all know is a tough conference.”

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference typically has a handful of teams ranked inside the AVCA Coaches’ Top 25 at all times throughout the season.

In the most recent update, the following NSIC teams made the cut: No. 4 Minnesota Duluth, No. 6 Concordia-St. Paul, No. 8 Northern State, No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State, No. 19 St. Cloud State, No. 20 Wayne State, No. 24 Sioux Falls and No. 25 Upper Iowa.

That’s half of the conference receiving national recognition.

The gauntlet awaits, as the Beavers start conference play this Friday.

“Our season starts this week,” Cordova said. “We could care less about our preseason; it’s about what we can do in conference. Our goal is to make a splash in the conference.”

MSU’s two “preseason” tournaments in Hawaii and Colorado were tune-up performances for the conference season.

Across the eight nonconference games, all of which count in the overall standings, the Beavers managed to win a total of three sets against teams that posted a combined record of 149-83 last season.

Four of the teams made the 2018 NCAA Division II National Tournament.

“Maybe we didn’t get the outcomes we were hoping for, but we are getting to see our weaknesses,” Cordova said. “In Hawaii, our serve-receive was our weakness there, so that was our focus. (At the Colorado tournament) serve-receive was our strong suit. Then, our hitting kind of went a little out of the window.

“Through the adversity, we are learning more about ourselves.”

Last season, MSU posted its best conference record (6-14) since 2014. And the Beavers return a majority of their starters from a season ago, minus setter Kelsey Dewulf.

Those duties were passed along to junior Mackenzie Froehlich, who has 184 of MSU’s 228 assists so far. A large portion of those assists ended up finding the arm of senior Shelby Spuller.

Spuller has 72 kills so far, putting her four kills shy of 1,000 for her collegiate career. She is trying to chase down Mallory Sall for the Division II era school record for career kills (1,389).

“Shelby (Spuller) knows her time is coming, this is it,” Cordova said. “We have a big senior class. With Shelby, you don’t really have to challenge her. She challenges herself a lot.”

Fellow seniors Emily Falldorf and Hayley Swain command the middle of the court. The 6-foot-plus duo can take over games with powerful kills or impactful blocks.

Rounding out MSU’s most used rotation so far is freshman newcomer Amarrie Welton as an outside hitter and experienced junior libero Karli Koza.

During a lengthy losing streak, the resolve of a team gets put under the microscope. Something these Beavers are all too familiar with.

MSU suffered a 13-game losing streak back in 2017, Cordova’s first season. Then, there was the infamous 54-game NSIC losing streak that the Beavers managed to snap that same season.

A decade ago in 2009 — before the Beavers even joined the elite volleyball landscape of the NSIC — MSU started that season with an 18-game losing streak.

So, yes, the 0-8 record right now stings a little bit. But, the Beavers still believe they have the pieces in place to improve on last season’s 6-14 NSIC record.

“I think it rattles you a little bit,” Cordova said. “They have been used to starting a little bit stronger, but we keep reinforcing and telling them that we were going up against stronger competition.”

Things aren’t going to get any easier.

MSU’s first three conference opponents are currently ranked.

Opening service against No. 24-ranked Sioux Falls is set for 5 p.m. Friday at the MSU Dome. The following afternoon at 2 p.m. on Saturday, MSU will host No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State.

Sioux Falls has won the last five meetings against Minot State, and the Beavers have never beaten SMSU in the nine matches that have been played since 2012.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.