Final Stats

DENVER – Moni Corrujedo tallied 20 kills while Sarah Schmid and Nola Basey both added 15 kills as Denver handed South Dakota volleyball its first Summit League loss of the season with a 25-22, 25-27, 27-25, 25-16 win on Sunday in Hamilton Gymnasium.

The win moved Denver (17-3, 6-0) into first-place in the Summit League standings and makes the Pioneers the lone undefeated team in league play.

Corrujedo finished the match with an attack percentage of .354, recording her 20 kills and three attack errors on 48 attacks. Schmid did not record an error on any of her 23 attacks to record an attack percentage of .652. Ruth Okoye was the fourth Pioneer to record over 10 kills, finishing with 12. Denver setter Bailey Karst aided the Pioneer offense with 59 assists.

Defensively, the Pioneers had five players with double-digit digs with Basey leading the way with 20.

South Dakota (12-7, 6-1) freshman setter Brittany Jessen recorded her first triple-double of her collegiate career, finishing the match with 41 assists, 13 digs and 10 kills. Three more Coyotes recorded double-digit kills with Sydney Dimke tallying 16, Kendall Kritenbrink recording 15 and Melissa Firtko notching 11. Kritenbrink led the Coyotes in digs with 21.

South Dakota never held an edge in kills during the match as Denver out-killed USD 18-14 in the first set and 13-9 in the fourth set. The teams tied with 21 kills in the second set and 18 in the third set.

Basey recorded five kills in the first set while Schmid, Corrujedo and Okoye each tallied four kills. The Pioneers had an attack percentage of .375 in the set, recording their 18 kills on 40 attacks while committing three attack errors. USD's Melissa Firtko tallied the most kills in the first set, finishing with seven on eight attacks.

The Coyotes bounced back to take set two as Kritenbrink, Jessen and Dimke all tallied six kills. Kritenbrink recorded the final three points of the set by tallying three straight kills to turn Denver's 25-24 lead into a USD 27-25 win. USD never led by more than two points during the set, but never trailed by more than three despite eight kills from Corrujedo.

Denver led almost the entire third set and scored seven of the set's first 10 points. Corrujedo and Schmid both tallied five kills in the set. USD trailed by as many as six (17-11) but fought back to have a set point opportunity at 25-24. However, Denver took the final three points with two of those coming off Coyote attack errors.

Denver finished the fourth set and the match on a 9-2 run. Seven of those nine points came off kills or aces as Basey notched three of her five kills in the set during that stretch. Dimke was the only Coyote with more than two kills in the set, finishing with four.

South Dakota will return to The Den to host Iowa State (9-6) in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday at 7 p.m.