Final Stats

VERMILLION, S.D. - South Dakota volleyball's rally from a 2-0 set deficit came up short as the IUPUI Jaguars claimed a share to the Summit League regular season title by topping the Coyotes 25-18, 25-23, 23-25, 20-25, 15-11 in The Den on Sunday. The match was USD's Senior Day celebration and the regular season finale.

Both teams entered the match in a three-way tie with Denver for first place in the league, and the loss drops USD (18-11, 12-4) to third-place in the final standings. The Coyotes will play Fort Wayne (13-19, 7-9) in the first round of the league tournament starting on Friday at 7 p.m. The tournament will be held on the campus of IUPUI.

The Jags (19-12, 13-3) snapped USD's 17-match home win streak against league opponents. Prior to Sunday, the Coyotes last home loss in league play was a 3-0 loss to Western Illinois on Oct. 14, 2012.

Four Coyotes recorded double-digit kills with Kendall Kritenbrink's 19 kills leading the way. The other three players to reach double-digit kills also had double-doubles. Audrey Reeg finished with 14 kills and 18 digs, Sydney Dimke added 14 kills and a career-high 22 digs and Melissa Firtko had 12 kills and 10 total blocks.

Brittany Jessen also finished with a double-double with 58 assists and 16 digs. Riley Haug was USD's leading defender with 24 digs.

Meredith Farkas tallied 21 kills and 17 digs while Kaitlyn Hickey added 16 kills and 17 digs to lead the Jaguars. Kelly Wachtel and Logan Walling both added 11 kills, Alexis Mapes tallied 45 assists and Beth Howard finished with 27 digs.

IUPUI had a hitting percentage of .409 over the first two sets, and entered the break with 33 kills to just six attack errors. The Jags led by as many as eight in the first set and never relinquished the lead in the second set after a four consecutive points gave them a 13-10 edge.

The Coyotes came back in the third set by tallying 18 kills with seven of those coming from Kritenbrink. They followed up by leading the fourth set from start to finish.

Farkas recorded seven kills in the final set as the Jags scored six of the match's final eight points. IUPUI gained seven points off of Coyote errors and never trailed during the set. Jessen and Firtko led the Coyote attack with two kills each.

Sunday's match was the home finale for USD's three seniors: Kritenbrink, Haug and Firtko. All three were recognized in a pre-match ceremony. Kritenbrink will leave USD as its all-time kills leader, Haug will leave as one of the program's top-10 digs leaders and Firtko departs as one of the top-10 blockers in program history.

Denver (24-6, 13-3), who swept Fort Wayne on Sunday, was awarded the top-seed in the league tournament. Both Denver and IUPUI will receive first round byes. Fourth-seeded Oral Roberts (15-14, 9-7) and fifth-seeded North Dakota State (14-16, 8-8) will start the tournament at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. USD and Fort Wayne are scheduled to start around 7 p.m. that night.

Livestreams and live stats for each match of the league tournament will be available on the Summit League's website, www.thesummitleague.org.