Box Score

VERMILLION, S.D. - Outside hitter Kendall Kritenbrink tallied 22 kills as South Dakota volleyball extended its home match winning streak to 12 by topping North Dakota State 25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-17 in front of a capacity crowd in The Den on Friday night. The match opened Summit League play for both teams.

South Dakota (7-6, 1-0) has not lost at home since being swept by Western Illinois on Oct. 14, 2012. During this stretch, USD has been pushed to a fifth set only once (vs. IUPUI on Sept. 29, 2013).

Melissa Firtko was the only other Coyote to reach a double-figure kill total, finishing the match with 10. Audrey Reeg was one kill shy of a double-double with 11 digs and nine kills, Brittany Jessen was two digs and two kills shy of a triple-double with 46 assists, eight kills and eight digs. Kelsey Biltoft recorded six total blocks and Riley Haug led USD in digs with 20.

The Coyotes recorded hitting percentages above .300 in the first three sets of the match (.367, .350 and .326), recording 48 kills and eight attack errors over those sets. USD finished the match hitting at a .318 clip. NDSU (5-9, 0-1) only out-killed the Yotes in the second set (18-16) and finished with a .259 hitting percentage.

Offensively for the Bison, three players recorded more than 10 kills. Jenni Fassbender led the way with 18, while Emily Minnick added 14 and Emily Miron recorded 11. Emily Milligan led the Bison on defense with 24 digs.

South Dakota led by as many as seven in the first set, but needed an 8-2 run after being down 10-9 to take control of the set. Three Coyotes recorded at least three kills in the set, with Kritenbrink tallying five and Reeg and Sydney Dimke both recording three.

The Bison won the second set after rallying from being down 20-16. Fassbender tallied four of her seven kills in the set during NDSU's closing 9-3 run.

USD never trailed in the third set despite having a five point lead cut to one on a pair of occasions. NDSU used a 5-1 run to cut USD's 12-7 lead to 13-12 and a 6-2 run to cut a 20-15 lead to 22-21, but couldn't get the point needed to tie the set. Reeg led USD offensively in the set with five kills while Haug recorded eight digs.

Kritenbrink took control in the fourth and final set, tallying nine kills on 17 attacks. South Dakota trailed 11-8 in the set before taking 16 of the next 19 points. Kritenbrink recorded five kills and Jessen had three service aces in that stretch.

The Coyotes will continue league play on Sunday as they host Oral Roberts (7-7, 1-0) in The Den at 1 p.m.