DENVER — South Dakota volleyball advanced to its first-ever Summit League Championship as four Coyotes tallied 10-plus kills to beat the North Dakota State Bison 25-16, 25-18, 25-19 in a semifinals match Saturday night in Hamilton Gymnasium.
 
The Coyotes are the No. 2 seed in the tournament and face top-seeded Denver Sunday at 2 p.m. MT. With a win, South Dakota would claim its first Summit League Tournament title and a berth to the NCAA Tournament. USD is 25-6 on the season and ends North Dakota State's (14-18) season for the second straight year.   
 
"Going into the match we knew a balanced offense was going to be key," said South Dakota head volleyball coach Leanne Williamson. "Britt (Jessen) did a very good job at following the game plan and getting all of our hitters involved early. Our players attacked with a lot of confidence and scored the ball at a very high rate.
 
"NDSU has very strong middles, so we knew getting them out of system was important, which we did very effectively. We are excited for the opportunity of continuing to make history as we play in the championship match."
 
South Dakota had its most balanced attack of the season and was led by senior Audrey Reeg, Summit League Player of the Year, with 14 kills. Summit League Freshman of the Year, Elizabeth Loschen, was next for the Coyotes with 11 kills and hit with a .409 clip.
 
Senior Lindsey Brown and redshirt sophomore Rachel Schmidt each tallied 10 kills while redshirt junior Meagan Kerns added seven more. Kerns connected on her seven kills with an impressive .700 hitting percentage. Brown, the league's leader in hitting percentage, had a .529 clip.
 
Summit League Setter of the Year, Brittany Jessen, tallied an efficient 42 assists in the sweep. In the USD record books, that's tied for the 14^th-most for a three-set match. She also passed Gina Baldwin and has the third-most assists in USD history with 3,662.    
 
Defensively, sophomore libero Lauren Mattison tallied a match-high 13 digs. It was her 25^th match this year with double-digit digs. Reeg and Jessen each tallied 11 digs as they both recorded double-doubles. Kerns led the Coyotes at the net with three total blocks while Reeg and Loschen each added one more.
 
With the first set tied at five, USD used an 11-3 run to take a commanding 16-8 lead. During the run, freshman Anne Rasmussen served an ace, Reeg tallied three kills and Brown and Loschen added two more apiece. The Coyotes used that momentum to coast the rest of the set and won 25-16 and took a 1-0 match lead.
 
The Coyotes were up 8-7 in the second set before Reeg swatted down three of the next four USD points, which forced NDSU to call a timeout. A little bit later South Dakota was up 14-9 and went on a 3-1 run to make it 17-10. Sophomore Hayley Dotseth served an ace and Kerns and Schmidt added a kill. The Coyotes won the second set 25-18 and had a 2-0 match lead at the break.
 
South Dakota jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third set after a kill and then an ace from Jessen. With the score tied at eight, the Coyotes and Bison would go back and forth in scoring as Reeg tallied three kills and Brown added four more, but the Coyotes still only led by one. With USD up 17-16, Loschen tallied back-to-back kills and NDSU called a timeout. A kill by Schmidt and a solo block by Kerns forced the Bison to call their second timeout as the Coyotes led 21-16. South Dakota won the third set 25-19 and swept the Bison.
 
The Coyotes wrap up their season tomorrow in the Summit League Championship against Denver.