MACOMB, Ill. — South Dakota senior outside hitter Audrey Reeg tallied her 1,000^th career kill as the Coyotes swept the Western Illinois Leathernecks 29-27, 25-13, 25-16 Friday night at Western Hall.
 
Reeg is the ninth Coyote to tally 1,000 kills in a career. She is only the fourth Coyote to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.
 
"Audrey completed a milestone tonight and I want to congratulate her on that," said South Dakota head volleyball coach Leanne Williamson. "That is a big accomplishment, and she has worked very hard throughout her career to get to this point. She is a special player, and I am looking forward to seeing what she can accomplish the rest of the year."
 
The match was the Summit League opener for USD and WIU. With the win, South Dakota is now 12-2 on the season and 1-0 in conference play. Western Illinois drops to 3-13 and 0-1. The Coyotes have now swept seven matches.
 
Redshirt sophomore Rachel Schmidt led the Coyotes with a match-high 14 kills with a .357 hitting percentage.
 
Reeg was next with 10 kills and also tallied 19 digs for her seventh double-double of the season.
 
Senior middle blocker Lindsey Brown, junior setter Brittany Jessen and junior middle blocker Kelly Law each contributed five kills. Jessen kept the offense going with 38 assists.
 
On defense, Reeg led the Yotes in digs. Sophomore libero Lauren Mattison was right behind her with 18 and sophomore Kristina Susak recorded 14. Law tallied five block assists and freshman outside hitter Elizabeth Loschen added three more.
 
"The match was a great way to start the conference season," said Williamson. "I think it took us the first game to really settle in and get into stride. However, I was proud of the way we fought at the end of the game when we were down.
 
"In games two and three, we were more confident and controlled the pace of the match. It was great to see Audrey and Rachel have big nights for us as they held down the offensive front."
 
Set one was tied at 10 before Western Illinois went on a 5-1 run to take the lead. South Dakota bounced back to cut the lead to one, 17-16, but WIU pushed the lead back to three and were up 23-20. USD then had a run of its own and scored four straight points to take a 24-23 lead. With the Coyotes down 26-25, Schmidt swatted down three kills during a 4-1 Coyote run and South Dakota took the first set 29-27.
 
USD carried that momentum into sets two and three and won 25-13 and 25-16, respectively. 
 
After three weeks away from home, South Dakota returns home and hosts Oral Roberts in vermillion, S.D, in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Sunday at 2 p.m.