Final Stats

VERMILLION, S.D. – Kendall Kritenbrink's 14 kills and Sydney Dimke's 11 kills led South Dakota volleyball to a 25-23, 25-22, 25-16 win over Western Illinois in The Den on Friday night. The win improved USD's Summit League record to 6-0 and extends its home win streak to 14 matches.

The win also sets up a battle of unbeaten league teams this weekend as South Dakota (12-6, 6-0) travels to Denver for a 3 p.m. tilt on Sunday. Denver (16-3, 5-0) topped North Dakota State in five sets on Friday night.

Kritenbrink was the lone Coyote to record a double-double in the match, adding 13 digs to her offensive numbers. Two more Coyotes reached double-digit digs as Audrey Reeg tallied 16 and Riley Haug notched 13.

Brittany Jessen led USD in assists with 33 and service aces with two, while Melissa Firtko added two solo blocks and four block assists to the defensive effort.

South Dakota outkilled the Leathernecks (3-15, 1-4) 45-30 and held a 7.5-2 edge in total blocks. The Coyotes also had 12 more digs than the Leathernecks, finishing with a 66-54 edge in that stat.

Ann Miller was the top attacker for the Leathernecks with 11 kills. As a team, Western Illinois recorded a hitting percentage of .063, finishing with 30 kills and 22 errors on 127 attacks. Defensively, Molly Murphy and Kayla Ruff both recorded 12 digs.

Kritenbrink and Firtko both tallied five kills in the opening set while Reeg recorded seven digs. South Dakota never trailed and led by six points on six occasions during the set. However, Western Illinois used a 7-1 rally to tie the set 19-19. USD took the set by scoring three of the set's final four points.

The Leathernecks had a negative attack percentage of -.061 in the second set, finishing with eight kills and 11 errors. In contrast, USD tallied 13 kills and nine errors. Dimke had six kills in that set on 13 attacks while Kritenbrink added four kills.

USD trailed four times during the set, but took control on a 7-0 run to make it 22-16. That run was aided by five Western Illinois attack errors.

The Coyotes locked down defensively in the third set, holding WIU to seven kills while tallying 16 kills of their own. Kritenbrink and Dimke tallied five and four kills respectively, while Firtko added three total blocks. USD led by as many as 12 and scored 14 of the set's first 18 points.

After taking on Denver, the Yotes will return to The Den to host Iowa State (8-6) in a non-conference match-up on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.