DENVER — Denver's Ruth Okoye tallied 11 kills with a hitting percentage of .556 and added four total blocks as the Pioneers beat the Coyotes 25-23, 25-18, 25-21 Sunday afternoon in Hamilton Gymnasium.
 
The loss is the Coyotes first in Summit League play. South Dakota is now 18-4 overall and still holds the top spot in the Summit with a record of 7-1. Denver moves to 14-6 and is just one game behind the Coyotes in the league at 6-2.
 
"Denver played well," said South Dakota head volleyball coach Leanne Williamson. "They took care of the ball and made us take a lot of swings to score. We were very even in kills, but we had too many errors. You can't win with 24 hitting errors. We will use this match to continue to improve and we will come out stronger next week."
 
Denver had the edge over South Dakota when it came to hitting percentage, .270 to .150, as well as total team blocks 10.0 to 5.0. The Coyotes committed a season-high 24 errors compared to Denver's 11.
 
Redshirt-sophomore Rachel Schmidt led the Coyotes with 16 kills. Senior Audrey Reeg was right behind her with 15 kills and added 13 digs for her 12^th double-double of the season.
 
Junior setter Brittany Jessen recorded her seventh double-double of the year with 36 assists and 10 digs.
 
Defensively, five Coyotes tallied 10 or more digs. Sophomore outside hitter Hayley Dotseth had 12 while sophomore libero Lauren Mattison and defensive specialist Anne Rasmussen had 10 each.     
 
Set one was tied a total of 10 times. The Coyotes had leads during the set of 11-7 and 22-19 before Denver came back each time to tie it back up. With the set tied at 23, Denver got a kill from Emma Willis and Jessen committed an attack error as the Pioneers won the first set 25-23.
 
Denver jumped all over the Coyotes early in the second set and was up 12-6. USD fought back and went on a 4-0 run to close the gap to two. Reeg swatted down three kills during the run and Dotseth added one. The closest that South Dakota came in the set was 12-10 and then 14-12 before Denver went on its own run of five straight points and won the second set 25-18.
 
The Pioneers carried that momentum into the third set and won 25-21 and swept the Coyotes.  
 
South Dakota continues the season on the road as the Coyotes travel to Tulsa, Okla., for a match against Oral Roberts Friday at 7 p.m.