Final Stats

VERMILLION, S.D. –South Dakota volleyball rallied back from an 11-8 deficit in the fifth set to top Oral Roberts 25-18, 21-25, 25-27, 25-19, 15-13 and extended its home winning streak to 13 matches in The Den on Sunday.

Kendall Kritenbrink tallied 24 kills and has had at least 20 kills in four of the Coyotes' (8-6, 2-0) last six matches. Audrey Reeg recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 12 kills and 16 digs, Melissa Firtko added 12 kills on 19 attacks and Brittany Jessen notched 51 assists to round out USD's offensive leaders.

Defensively, Riley Haug led the team in digs with 17 while Kaitlyn Hastings added 14 digs. The Coyotes held a 14-7 edge in blocks in the match, with Kelsey Biltoft tallying three solo blocks and five block assists, Firtko adding one solo block and five assists and Jessen tallying five block assists.

Laura Milos led the Golden Eagles (6-7, 1-1) offensively while notching a double-double with 24 kills and 15 digs. Sadie Schaffner was ORU's second best player offensively with nine kills, while Lucija Bojanjac had 54 assists and Kylie Johnson had 20 digs.

The Coyotes did not trail and recorded 15 kills on 35 attacks in their 25-18 opening set win. Kritenbrink led USD's attack in the set with six kills. The Coyotes put the set out of ORU's reach on a 6-1 run to make it 20-12 before the teams traded points for the rest of the set.

The Golden Eagles would even the match with a 25-21 win in the second set and then would tally 21 kills while winning the third set 27-25. Milos tallied 15 of her kills over these two sets with six in the second and nine in the third. Kritenbrink was the only Coyote to record more than three kills in both sets, with four in the second and seven in the third.

The Coyotes forced the match into a fifth set by winning set four 25-19. USD strung together a 7-0 run that turned an 11-11 tie into an 18-11 lead. ORU couldn't cut the lead to less than five the rest of the set. Kritenbrink and Reeg both tallied five kills in the set while Haug recorded four digs.

ORU held a three-point lead four times in the deciding set, but aided USD by committing four attack errors during the match's deciding 7-2 run to give USD a 15-13 win. ORU's errors gave USD four of its final five points. USD had just as many kills in the set (six) as ORU had attack errors.

South Dakota will be on the road to take on Omaha (6-9, 1-1) on Tuesday. That match will start at 7 p.m.